Billy Podaras

Academic Music and Drumkit Teacher

Billy Pod (Vasileios Podaras) was born in Athens, Greece.

He got into music from the age of 5 studying classical piano, violin and drums. He studied Jazz Performance (BA, MA with full scholarship) at the Jazz Department of Ionian University in Corfu, Greece.

As a professional drummer/ musician and educator he has been leading an international career for more than 15 years performing/touring and teaching in EU, UK, ASIA and USA. He is currently living in London and gradually becoming a valuable asset in the London Jazz scene and beyond.

He is also an accomplished composer with 2 official album releases and has recorded more than 20 albums with international acclaimed artists such as multi-grammy saxophonist Tivon Pennicott, New York singer Jd Walter, British guitar legend Jim Mullen, among others.

Robert Pennel

Drum TEACHER

Rob is an experienced teacher, having taught drums for 15 years. He studied music at Trinity College of Music, London and then at Middlesex University; where he studied Jazz with Nikki Ilses, Stuart Hall and Martin France. As a freelance musician Rob has performed at festivals across Europe; such as the London Hyde Park Calling, the Electric Picnic Festival in Dublin, and the Seixial Jazz Festival in Portugal, most notably with Australian folk duo "Angus and Julia Stone''. He has experience recording drums in some London's top studios such as Rak and Angel studios and gigs regularly with a number of Professional bands across the UK. The Union Chapel, Ronnie Scotts, Pizza Express Dean Street, the Vortex and Cafe Oto are to name but a few of the London venues he has performed in.

Rob is passionate about teaching the Drums and as well as teaching for Pelican and has a successful private teaching practice across west London where he teaches at schools, students homes and online from his home studio. Rob's approach to learning the drums focuses heavily on getting students to read rhythms from musical notation straight away from their first lesson. He treats reading rhythms the same as learning your phonics as you would learning any other language. Children quickly remember what the basic rhythms sound like by singing them and carefully over time become fluent in singing the rhythms straight off the page. The great thing about this approach is you don't even need a pair of sticks to get started let alone a drum kit. He is experienced in teaching children who don't have access to drums at home and has gotten some of his students up to grade 1 standard who do not own a set. Rob also plays guitar, bass, and piano and will often accompany students in their lessons to give them a musical context and develop their musicianship skills further.

Jakub Miazga

Drumkit TEACHER

Jakub Miazga was born in Bialystok, Poland, where he studied classical percussion until he moved to UK in 2005. He undertook his higher education at the prestigious Leeds College of Music, where he had a chance to study and work with UK’s finest musicians including Dave Walsh, Omar Puente, Jim Corry and many more.

After graduating in 2011, he took a full time position as a showband drummer and a musical director on board 5-star cruise line, where he got a chance to travel around the world and perform with some of the best acts on high seas.

He is now settled down in London and he is quickly becoming an in demand jazz/session drummer on the UK scene.