Arman Sherkat

With over 13 years of playing and studying the Tonbak, an Iranian Persian drum, under the guidance of Bamdad Fotouhi, I am a Tonbak instructor at the Laurier Academy of Music & Arts. I have an immense creative passion for the Tonbak and I strive to share the joy and freedom that it makes me feel with my students.

My musical experiences include my aptitude in writing Tonbak notes through listening, score, and peer analysis, for pieces where the Tonbak is yet to be included. For example, as part of Bluevale Collegiate Institute’s Concert Band, I arranged Tonbak notes which I performed with Balkan Seven by Scott Watson and Michele Fernández’s La Fiera Asturiana at 2024 and 2025 school concerts, respectively. Additionally, through 2022-2026, I was a performer in Bluevale Collegiate Institute’s annual Many Moods of Music Show where, alongside other musicians and vocalists, I combined the Tonbak with songs from rock, pop, country and jazz genres. As a member of Wilfrid Laurier University’s Next Gen Youth Orchestra, I have written Tonbak notes for pieces including an arrangement of Fairouz’s Al Bint Al Shalabiya, which I presented at the Laurier Academy of Music & Arts’ Next Gen Winter Concert.

Due to its infinite techniques, the Tonbak is unique in its ability to imitate nature, the feeling of joy, and a plethora of other emotions, adding another lens to view the world. To illustrate, as part of my Grade 11 music class final project at Bluevale Collegiate Institute, I composed the Tonbak and Daf duet titled Hail or تگرگ  in Farsi, which captures the varying aspects of rain and hail during a thunderstorm.

My teaching experiences are composed of serving as teacher’s assistant, note editor and note writer to Bamdad Fotouhi at the Bamdad Fotouhi Music Studio in Richmond Hill, Ontario, being a percussion section co-leader at Bluevale Collegiate Institute’s Concert Band and volunteering as a percussion section Music Mentor at the Bandology organization’s annual Kitchener-Waterloo summer camp in July 2025.

Currently, I am pursuing my degree in Honours Mathematics at the University of Waterloo.