He obtained a “Diplôme de Formation Supérieure”, or “First Prize”, in the class of Jacques Delécluse at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse (CNSMD) of Paris in 1997. In France he taught percussion at the National Regional Conservatories of Grenoble and Angers, and percussion pedagogy at the CNSMD of Paris. Currently, Marandola is a professor of percussion at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University in Montréal, co-director of the McGill Percussion Ensemble, and a guest instructor at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY (State University of New-York). Since his arrival in Montréal, Marandola has co-founded Sixtrum, a professional percussion ensemble in residency at the University of Montréal, launched percussion duo Akrostick with Kristie Ibrahim, and performs with the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Kore and the Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec. He is also involved in Le Vivier, an organisation unifying 22 ensembles and institutions promoting contemporary music and musique actuelle in Montréal. Additional highlights from his performance career in new music include collaborations with French composer Arnaud Petit, and the CD Chants… that he recorded with Les Jeunes Solistes (dir. R. Safir), devoted to the vocal works of Claude Vivier, which won the Académie du disque Charles Cros «Grand Prix 2003». Marandola is equally passionate about orchestral music and has performed in numerous concerts with the orchestras of Radio France (Orchestre National de France, Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique of Radio France) between 1998 and 2005. In parallel to his career as a musician, Marandola carries out research in Ethnomusicology. In 2003 he completed a PhD in Ethnomusicology under the direction of Simha Arom at Sorbonne, Paris. A former founding member of the Langues-Musiques-Sociétés laboratory (CNRS-Paris V), he has published important research articles, and three compact discs on the topic of the traditional music of Cameroon (Inédit and Ocora / Radio France). In Montréal, Marandola recently became Associate Director of Artistic Research of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media (CIRMMT), and remains co-leader of the group of research devoted to “Expanded Musical Practice”.
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