Feel the Beat and Get Loopy with RupLoops at Horizon Stage

Interactive Live Looping and Vocal Percussion Artist Takes Families on a Global Journey of Sound And Teaches Kids To Make Their Own Music at Horizon Stage on March 23

RupLoops: The Human Radio is an interactive, live looping performance that uses vocal percussion, rhythmic rhymes, and an arsenal of eclectic instruments from around the globe. Vancouver-based interdisciplinary artist and facilitator Rup Sidhu utilizes his diverse skills as a musician to create a pulsating, entertaining, and engaging musical experience that is fun for all ages. A gifted performer, Rup has a deep passion for intercultural work and sounds. His show, The Human Radio, will take you on a journey of sound; exploring anatomy, geography, and culture. Through body percussion and beatboxing, Rup demonstrates and teaches how the human form is a musical instrument. Mixing hip-hop, blues, and bhangra, this hour long concert tunes into themes of home, identity, culture, justice, dignity, and celebration. Bring your whole family to RupLoops: The Human Radio at Horizon Stage on Saturday, March 23 at 2 p.m. 

Inspired by folk and classical forms of music from around the world, Rup’s musical expressions range from groove oriented hip hop beats, to contemporary fusions of classical ragas, scores for the National Film Board of Canada and remixes of vintage Bollywood tunes, to experimental compositions for dance and theatre productions. Rup has produced fourteen albums with emerging artists and shared stages with Fred Penner, Raffi, Chugge Khan, Rajasthan Josh, Tanya Tagaq, Michael Franti, Shane Koyzan and Delhi2Dublin, to name a few. Performance highlights include the Jaipur Literature Festival (India), Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Vancouver International Children’s Festival, Aga Khan Museum, World Body Percussion Festival, Globalqurque (USA), Indian Summer Festival, Mehndi, Masala, Musti, Stern Grove Festival (USA), Shambhala Music Festival, Vancouver International Storytelling Festival, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, New Forms Festival, Oregon Country Fair (USA), Fete de la Musique (Germany), and Fusion Festival (Germany). His solo live looping show, RupLoops, has toured to over 300 locations across Canada.

Tickets for Horizon Stage’s Family Matinee, RupLoops: The Human Radio, are $12 for all ages and may be purchased at the City Hall Ticket Centre (315 Jespersen Ave), by phone at 780-962-8995 or 1-888-655-9090, and online through Ticketpro.ca. Free pre-show activities will be running in the lobby from 1 - 1:45 p.m.

Also on March 23, before The Human Radio, Rup is facilitating his Raise Your V.O.I.C.E. (Vocalize Our Inner Creative Expressions) Workshop at Horizon Stage from 11:30 a.m.  – 1 p.m. Youth aged 7 - 15 are invited to explore vocal percussion, the art of live looping, and song writing to co-create original music that utilizes each of their voices. Live looping is the live recording, layering, and playback of music created in real time using loop station technology. Rup will also teach the basics of beatboxing and Indian vocal percussion to give them an understanding of what he likes to call the “tongue drum!” Students will create improvised and spontaneous compositions, listening to each other and utilizing everyone’s skills. Then they will write original lyrics about what they care most about in the world; ending the workshop with a brand new song that’s ready to be performed or recorded. Work will be done in both small and large groups. If the children play an instrument, they are encouraged to bring it with them. The cost for RupLoops’ Raise Your V.O.I.C.E. Workshop is $15 per child - registration may be done online or by calling 780-962-8995.  

As an educator, Rup Sidhu has facilitated and taught musical programs in universities, public schools, youth prisons, and communities throughout Canada, USA, UK, and India. He currently leads programs for a variety of not-for profit organizations including the Access to Media Education Society, the Power of Hope, Reel Youth, and the Sarah McLachlan School of Music. He also co-founded Metaphor, a program dedicated to bringing hip hop workshops and performances into schools, detention centers, and rural communities.