Bermuda drummer, author and professor Eddie Ming has returned to his Island home from Cuba and is preparing for another cultural exchange trip for Bermudian musicians.

Mr Ming created the Cultural Exchange Programme two years ago which sees music students travel overseas to learn and perform.

Previous trips have taken musicians to Montreal and New York as well as Cuba.

Next year they will return to New York. So far 21 Bermudians, mainly students from his drum school in St George’s, have signed up.

“The programme was designed to bring Cuba and Bermuda together through drums and percussion,” said Mr Ming.

“The highlight of last year was one of my Bermudian students Bryson Doers, who took part in the programme. He was the only other Bermudian involved in that performance and he played one of my recitals.

“In New York City we had a private custom programme for us and Montreal was a joint venture with students from Kose Academy, New York’s Premiere Music School and New York’s Conservatory for the Performing Arts.”

Mr Ming, who has been working in Cuba since 2008, has also written a new book based around snare drum rhythms and styles. It is one of many he has published over the years alongside more than 20 course descriptions and lesson plans used by overseas professors.

His books have been reviewed extensively by Cuba’s Education Commission. Professor and head of percussion at the Conservatory Amadeo Roldan, Maria Margarita Ponce Fernandez, described his latest book — Artistic Orchestrated Applications for Drum Set — as “very praiseworthy”.

“At the end of this study, students would have had a high technical training being able to achieve a good performance,” she said.

Mr Ming has his own drumming and percussion class in Bermuda, teaching all levels and ages. Most of the Bermudian students participating in overseas programmes are students at Eddie Ming’s Tiny Tots Drum School and Rhythm Lab which covers a multitude of styles, including jazz, funk, rock and Afro-Cuban.

“The objective of my school in Bermuda is to have a programme that is structured in a way that it injects some discipline in the kids — taking them to places like Cuba, Montreal and New York and taking their skills to another level.

“My job is to get them to demonstrate their full potential when they get to a foreign institute.”

Mr Ming first travelled to Cuba in 2008 on a trip sponsored by the then Department of Culture and Community Affairs as part of a Bermudian Memorandum of Cultural Understanding. He has continued to visit every year since, staying for about five weeks working with students in various schools.

In 2009 he was involved in getting numerous Bermudians in the Cuban Havana International Music Festival.

Mr Ming will be holding an evening of music at the lab at 9 Old Military Road, St George’s on May 9 at 7pm. Music will be provided by the lab’s house band the Jade Minors Quartet, and Mr Ming, who used to be a chef, will prepare a vegan food spread.