Biography
Born in 1986, Ruven auto-didactically got in touch with music from a young age and later on, at the age of 8, Piano and Drums Set lessons started.
It became clear quite fast that his focus would lay on Drums/Percussion and over the time, different projects emerged in which he could gain experience as a percussionist/drummer. Alongside different Rock & Pop bands he joined the „OWL - Big Band“ at the age of 14; in this period he started to join different projects as a studio drummer.
With 16 years old, Ruven Ruppik developed a strong interest in western classical music and classical percussion; a few years later, in 2004 he won the national german competition „Jugend Musiziert“ in the category „Solo performance classical percussion“. He achieved the highest score and won the special price of the japanese „Irino-Foundation“ for contemporary music and the „Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben“. He started to tour as a soloist all over Germany, Switzerland, Japan, France etc.
During the time of his classical percussion studies, where he mainly focused on contemporary music, Ruven got in contact with music from the balkan countries. He immediately felt connected to the traditional music from this region and next to western classical & contemporary music he started to study and perform traditional music from Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia etc
Around this time he played and toured in various contemporary music projects and „world music ensembles“ all over Europe, China, Oman, Macedonia etc. In addition Ruven Ruppik had the great honour to work with very recognised artists from the western classical music scene such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Kurt Masur, Peter Eötvös, Peter Prommel, Martin Christoph Redel, Jaap van Sweden, just to name a few.
In addition to various solo performances that were live streamed in radio or television, he started to work with different Orchestras such as „Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Radio Filharmonie Hilversum and Radio Kamerorkest“, and in the year 2008 he gave a solo recital at Europe's biggest Drums & Percussion Festival („Drums & Percussion Paderborn“).
After his studies in western classical music, he studied a bachelor of world-percussion in the worldmusic deparment of Codarts in Rotterdam and graduated with the highest mark and special honours. Additionally he studied a Master of Music in „North indian classical music - Tabla“ under the guidance of the great Tabla player Niti Ranjan Biswas and Bansuri Legend Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, and graduated with „Cum Laude“.
Beside the Cajón book „die Groovebox“ (Coda Music Editorial) which he published in 2011, Ruven Ruppik performed live in numerous radio and television shows (Vrije Geluiden, RTV Rijnmond, Virus, Klassik Forum WDR 3, etc)
In addition to performances at the North Sea Jazz Festival (Rotterdam/Netherlands), Cairo Jazz Festival (Cairo/Egypt), Drums and Percussion (Paderborn/Germany), Paco de Lucia Festival (Algeciras/Spain), Guitar Festival of Ireland (Ireland), Festival Flamenco de Montréal (Canada) Houdetsi Festival (Kreta/Greece), Echtzeit Festival (Kiel/Germany)
Ruven had the honour to share the stage with artists such as Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Estrella Morente, Paco Peña, Jose Manuel Leon, Alicia Carrasco, Kudsi Ergüner, Niladri Kumar, Aynur, Bassam Saba, Rima Khcheich, Carles Benavent, Aziza Brahim, Jorge Pardo, Tino van der Sman, Rosario Toledo, Niti Ranjan Biswas, Karen Lugo, José Carlos Gómez, CHAARTS, Codarts & the Royal Conservatory Big Band (Koninkrijksconcert for the former dutch Queen 2012), (with Rudresh Mahanthappa at North Sea Jazz Festival 2012), Lilian Viera, Izaline Calister, Dina Medina ect.
Over the last years Ruven gave numerous workshops and masterclasses all over Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, Greece and was touring with different projects in Canada, Uzbekistan, China, Japan, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, England, Ireland, Spain, France, Macedonia, Rumania etc
He teaches Percussion in the Jazz and Pop Department of the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and the University of Music in Detmold.
Ruven Ruppik expresses himself through different music styles such as Flamenco, Mediterranean Music, Ottoman Music, Latin/Brazilian Music and explores the rich world of North indian classical music.