Titus Bellwald

Percussionist Titus Bellwald studied classical percussion and music and media arts at HKB in Bern, Switzerland. He has always had a soft spot for weird noises and looking for unusual ways to produce sounds. Already as a youth he developped soundscapes for theatre performances and built his own instruments. After obtaining his master in instrumental pedagogy in 2004 he began his master studies with a minor in „music and media arts“. He researched ways of interaction between his instruments and electronic sound processings. In his master recital in 2006 he presented his own composition „Mimesis“ for timpani and live electronics (hear the performance).

In 2009 he spent 6 months in Paris at Cité des Arts on a grant by the state of Bern developing sensor interfaces for his instruments.
His range as a percussionist is very broad, playing in orchestras, as solo artist and with a variety of smaller and larger groups in styles ranging from contemporary classical to medieval and traditional music.
He plays regularly with „Ostwind“ and the baroque orchestra „grenzklang“.

Titus Bellwald's main focus is on mediterranean and oriental hand percussion:
He studied tombak/zarb with his master Pedram Khavarzamini (and has also worked with Keyvan and Bijan Chemirani, Madjid Khaladj and Pejmân Hadadi). Riq, Tamburello and other frame drums with Zohar Fresco and several Italian and Egyptian teachers.
For his teacher Pedram Khavarzamini he has written notation including for the book „some days with tombak/چند روز با تمبک“ (you can find a sample here).

collaborations

with various baroque orchestras (including „grenzklang“, „les Passions de l’ âme“, ensemble arcimboldo, Berner Kantorei and „L’ Estro Armonico“ of HKBwith Malcolm Bilson, Fortepiano), „L’Amoresca“ Ensemble für Alte Musik mit Elisabeth Pawelke, Dominika Bonk and Emanuele Forni, concerts or recordings with Gaudenz Badrutt, Nehad El-Sayyed, Olivier Latry, Emanuele Forni, Fanny Anderegg, Florian Volkmann, Gabrielle Weber, Ensemble Paul Klee, OPUS-Orchester, Orchester der Gymnasien Bern-Neufeld etc.