Klaus Staffa

Klaus Staffa

Klaus M. Staffa (born December 20, 1953 in Darmstadt ) is a freelance German percussionist , composer and music teacher .

After first attempts as an actor at the local school theater (1971) and the founding of his own amateur theater group called "Spielplatz", Staffa, who had taught himself to play drums as an autodidact at the age of 15, began studying drums with Heinz von Moisy in Berlin for two years in 1976 At the same time, he started working as a professional musician in bars and hotels.

After founding the small "Theater am Kreuzberg" (1977), which he also directed for a short time, Staffa began a three-year training in 1978 at the renowned Berlin drama studio Hanny Herter, who from 1981 received further training in Lee Strasberg's " Method Acting " with Susan Batson, Walter Lott and Dominique de Fazio from New York. Further training in respiratory therapy with Gora Goralewski (1983) and as a psychodrama assistant (2000) followed.

A number of percussion and drum studies, including a. with Dudu Tucci ( Samba , Candomblé ), Reinhard Flatischler (rhythm structures, body percussion ), Freddie Santiago ( Salsa , Rumba , Merengue ) and in Kaoly Asano's “Tawoo Taiko Dojo” (see also “ Gocoo ”), also took him to different countries Europe, after Ghana (1986), Brazil (1988), Costa Rica (1994) and most recently Japan (2009).

Klaus Staffa is the initiator and founder of numerous Berlin theater and music groups, some of which he subsequently led, u. a. the street theater group “Theater aus der Mülltonne” (1979), the “Theaterwerkstatt Charlottenburg” (1980), the percussion jazz rock band “Die Elefanten” (1981) and the first Berlin samba group “Ramba Samba” (1983), the “Jugendtheaterwerkstatt Spandau” (1989), music theater group “Zuper Zero” (1991) and the rhythm theater group “p3” (1998), finally in 2001 the drum group “Big-Drums” and in 2005 the Greenpeace barrel drum group “SolarDrums”.

Staffa's initiative is also due to the founding of what is now the largest German samba festival, Samba Syndrom, in Berlin's Wuhlheide in 1996.

Staffa currently works as a lecturer at the Landesmusikakademie Berlin, the Alice Salomon University (ASH) in Berlin-Hellersdorf and in the Working Group for School Music (AfS) Berlin-Brandenburg.

In addition, he leads various, predominantly Berlin drum projects, workshops and centers, etc. a. the Berlin percussion center "groove eV" founded in 1997 - together with Christoph Renner - and the "groove power percussion" project at the annual Berlin Carnival of Cultures .

In 2018, on his initiative, the Neukölln "MUSIKFABRIK.BERLIN" was built, in which since the beginning of 2019, in addition to numerous other music projects and schools, the "groove eV" has found a new home.

Klaus Staffa is the winner of numerous cultural awards and lives in Berlin.

Publications

• Die Elefanten: Nervous City (1985, LP), Percussion & Vocals
• Die Elefanten: Always All Always Me (1987, LP), Percussion & Vocals
• Die Elefanten: Wasserwüsten (1989, LP & CD), percussion & composition
• Die Elefanten: Faust (1994, CD), percussion, vocals and composition
• Reinhard Flatischler : The forgotten power of rhythm. TA KE TI NA. The rhythmic path to awareness (3 MCs & book); Synthesis-Verlag 1994, ISBN 3-922026-28-1 ; Percussion, vocals & collaboration on the book
• Klaus Staffa, Uli Moritz : Drumming is great! Volume 1 for beginners (book + DVD); Helbling-Verlag 2010, ISBN 978-386227-045-3
• Klaus Staffa, Uli Moritz: Drumming is great! Volume 2 (book + DVD); Helbling-Verlag 2011, ISBN 978-386227-066-8

Web links

• Klaus Staffa's own website , last accessed May 22, 2014.
• Klaus Staffa as a teacher of "groove eV" , last accessed April 25, 2018.