Footscray-Yarraville City Percussion Academy

Darling Dance Studios
13 Glass Street Kew 3102, 31 Tyne Street Box Hill North

Bringing Percussive Excellence to the Western Suburbs of Melbourne. www.vpacademy.com.au Become part of a community and get world-class tuition.

FYCPA PERCUSSION ACADEMY - ABOUT

The Footscray-Yarraville City Percussion Academy (affiliated with the VPA) was founded at the beginning of 2018. Academy Director Katie Thomas had a vision - to set up a specialist Percussion Academy, dedicated to creating confident and skilled percussionists in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne. The name came from the Footscray-Yarraville City Band, who at the ti

me was conducted by Phillipa Edwards. Phillipa shared this vision, of brass and percussion academies providing communities where amateur and professional musicians interact and excel. In late 2018 the Hyde Street Youth Band, also based in Footscray, were in search of a percussion tutor, and so a fabulous relationship struck up between the three organisations, connecting generations of musicians together. This unique structure of organisations working together, creates the perfect combination of learning and applying practical skills in a band ensemble setting. The academy had the original focus of bringing percussive excellence to the Western Suburbs of Melbourne, but it has reached so much further than that. In 2018 and 2019, the FYCPA, as part of the Skunkworks Productions Inc., ran the percussion workshops and tutoring at the Bright Brass & Percussion Summer Intensive camp. This camp included students from all over Victoria, from Wodonga to Wonthaggi and many in between. In early 2020, the two bands and the Percussion Academy moved into a brand new venue in the Nicholson Campus of Victoria University. Based in the heart of Footscray, surrounded by coffee shops this provided the perfect venue for the Percussion Academy as it’s less than 10km from the city centre and is easily accessible with parking facilities and public transport. The combined bands and the academy have purchased a marimba and a vibraphone, completing the full set of orchestral and solo percussion instruments. The academy offers many different instruments to learn on, such as drum kit, timpani, marimba, vibraphone, xylophone, glockenspiel, and snare drum, and has a full orchestral set including tubular bells, concert bass drum and crash cymbals. The FYCPA now has a strong membership of private students of all ages and abilities, a junior ensemble, a senior ensemble and a toddlers class. The ensembles play at festivals and fetes, as well as students competing in local and state-wide competitions. The academy hosts many workshops and masterclasses throughout the year, with local and international musicians bringing many skill sets to its students. If you are looking to begin your journey as a percussionist, refine your established skills and set goals, pass your exams or auditions with flying colours, or simply want to finally start that hobby you always dreamed of, this is the place for you.

13/12/2025

End of year showcase and picnic for our Footscray Yarraville City Percussion Academy Family!

Photos from Footscray-Yarraville City Percussion Academy's post

05/10/2025

Our Academy Co-Directors had a blast reporting in at the Annual General Meeting for the Footscray Yarraville City Brass Band 🎙️2025 has been filled with a rollercoster of activities and sounds and we’re looking forward to sharing the remaining upcoming events for the year!

16/12/2024

🎄✨ FYCPA end of year concert ✨🎄

Thank you everyone who came to the FYCPA end of year concert. Aidan and Maja did a fantastic job of organising and the students played magnificently.

A successful 2024!

26/08/2024

Pov your teacher is short 😅

#5”1

04/04/2024

⭐️ Congratulations to all of our students, teachers and alumni for competing in the nationals percussion solos over the weekend ⭐️

🏅 1st place junior snare, timpani and multi: Ben Smith (alumni)
🏅 1st place junior mallets: Alex Wilson (student)
🏅 2nd place junior mallets and timpani: Harrison Brink (student)
🏅 1st place open mallets: Will Lawrence (alumni)
🏅 1st place open snare, timpani and multi: Katie Thomas (teacher)

🏆 Junior champion of champions: Ben Smith
🏆 Open champion of champions: Katie Thomas

Special shout out to teachers ⭐️ Justin Zheng and Sophie Barker ⭐️ (Melbourne Con) for also participating with the Footscray Band over the weekend, as well as our mallet gun Jamie Willson (ANAM). Couldn't have done it without you guys ❤️

01/04/2024

So proud of our students competing over the weekend.

Hyde Street Youth won open D grade and the juniors won junior B 🎉

30/03/2024

Super proud of the academy students who marched with HSYB today. Your lines were spot on and your performance was incredible! Well done 🎉

22/03/2024

🎉 YARRAVILLE FESTIVAL 🎉

Thank you for having us 🥰 The students and I had such a blast. See you next year.

Photography: Jai Innes

Yarraville Festival
City of Maribyrnong
Footscray Yarraville City Band

21/03/2024

The academy was super excited to have the amazing Matt Ong come in and workshop our pieces.

He gave us more confidence and designed our stick tricks/visuals for the upcoming performance at the Yarraville Festival.

Thank you Matt!

15/03/2024

We are performing this Sunday! 11:15am on the Community Stage.

See you there!

Yarraville Festival
Footscray Yarraville City Band
City of Maribyrnong

23/02/2024

Congratulations to all of the students who completed their AMEB/Rockschool exams at the end of last year. We had a record number of 10 exams!

We have received our results back and are proud to announce that we our AMEB exams were all A and B+, and our Rockschool exams were all Distinctions!

Congratulations everyone 🎉

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Location

Melbourne

Telephone

+61402008902

Website

http://www.vpacademy.com.au/

Address

Nicholson Street
Melbourne, VIC
3011

Opening Hours

Monday	1pm - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm
Saturday	9am - 5pm
Sunday	9am - 1pm