Dr. Sebastian Araya

Percussion Instructor

Sebastian Araya is a professional percussionist and educator with more than 15 years of experience, teaching and performing not only in his home country of Chile, but also internationally in Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Peru, Brazil, and the United States.

Over the years, Sebastian has performed in numerous orchestras and ensembles, including the Symphonic Orchestra of Chile, the National Youth Orchestra of Chile, the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra, the Suburban Symphony Orchestra and Augusta Symphony Orchestra. He has also participated in many international festivals, such as Campos do Jordao and "FEMUSC" in Santa Catarina, Brazil. Although he is trained in classical music, Sebastian also has a flexible range of musical styles, with proficiency on both drum set and Latin percussion. He performed Folk and Latin South American music with the Band, Chakaimanta, in Cleveland, Ohio for more than two years.

Sebastian has 15+ years of teaching experience with a wide range of students from ages 3 to 74 and he has taught students from diverse backgrounds and countries. Sebastian has greatly enjoyed motivating his students and the rewarding challenge of curating individual lesson plans and curricula for each student. In Chile, he was the coordinator of percussion studies at the Institute of Secondary Studies University of Chile (ISUCH) and the Santa Cecilia Conservatory. In the United States, he has been the percussion instructor at The Beck Center for the Arts Academy as well as The Westlake Music Academy. Sebastian is currently a faculty member as a Percussion Instructor at Anderson University in South Carolina, where he teaches applied percussion lessons and the percussion ensemble, he is also the percussion instructor at the Community Music School (CMS) and the primary instructor of African Hand Drumming and Percussion Methods for Music Therapists classes at the University of Georgia teaching over 110 students every semester. (Please check out this article written in the Red and Black magazine about the African Drumming class and the impact of Sebastian on his students https://rb.gy/m2dpo).

Sebastian received his Master of Music Performance from Cleveland State University, and Doctorate in Musical Arts from the University of Georgia.