The Project Drum Staff

Fara Tolno (left) Master Drummer, Dancer and Lead Facilitator

Scott Griffiths (right) Administration, Djembe, Facilitator

Tober Schorr (not pictured) Djembe, Dun Duns, Facilitation

 

 

Fara Tolno was born in Conakry, Guinea, West Africa. He spent his youth in the village of Kissidugu and Guinea’s capital city, Conakry. Playing djembe since the age of nine, he has traveled extensively performing and teaching both drumming and dance. Fara spent nine years as the lead drummer for Les Merveilles de Guinea (The Wonders of Guinea) under the tutelage of West Africa’s most influential director and choreographer, Kemoko Sano.
Fara has performed with many of the world’s premier musicians including Mamady Keita, Burning Spear, Neil Young, Sekouba Bambino, Youssou N’Dour, Salif Keita Habibe Koite, Oumou Sangare…
Currently Fara is focusing his energy locally by developing Project Drum and Kissidugu, an explosive West African percussion and dance troupe. He is also pursuing an MFA in Dance at CU Boulder and has recently become the father of his new son Fyah
Fara’s performance style has been described as mystical as he dazzles audiences around the world. Now as the director of Kissidugu he has taken his depth of knowledge to the realm of musical arrangement and choreography.
Fara has a magical way of teaching everything from the basics to the beautiful intricacies of West African percussion to Western players of all levels and ages. His energetic and compassionate teaching style make him one of the most sought after drum and dance instructors in the United States.

Scott Griffiths holds a degree in Alternative Education and has worked in and with schools since 1999. Scott has been studying African percussion and dance since 2001 and has been a member of “Kissidugu,” Fara Tolno’s performance troupe, since 2005.
His experience in education and as a performer of West African music
allow him to bridge the gap between Western educational models and
traditional African teaching styles.

 

Tober Schorr is originally from Bellingham, WA. His first musical influence was his parents' record collection, which included everything from jazz to Jimi Hendrix to the Talking Heads. In 8th grade, he started listening to African music when his mom got the CD "Rhythm of Resistance: Music of Black South Africa". At 16, Tober spontaneously decided to take up the drumset, wanting to sound like Mitch Mitchell. In college, he began studying the djembe with Stuart Dinwoodie. After returning from a stint in the Peace Corps in Mozambique, where he taught high-school biology and played in a traditional drumming and dance group, he moved to Boulder in order to study more seriously with Abdoul Doumbia and Fara Tolno. In 2005, Tober was invited by Fara to join his performance troupe, "Kissidugu".