Bermudian musician Eddie Ming has received a special award for his work teaching Cuba’s children how to play the drums.It is the second time in two years that the Latin America country has honoured Ming’s work with its young musicians, after they awarded him a teacher’s diploma in 2010.Ming has spent the past several Christmases in Cuba working with students and jazz bands and this holiday season was no different.“The work in Cuba went wonderfully,” said Mr Ming, of the Rhythm Lab Drum and Percussion School in St George’s, shortly after returning from Cuba.“For the second time, I received a write up in the Cuba newspapers. I worked with around 27 drumming students and three jazz bands.“This time around there was much more support from the community. I won a special award for the third recital I have helped to arrange in Cuba. It was a special base cleft award. It was handmade, and presented by the Cuban Minister of Culture.”In 2010 Mr Ming was awarded a teacher’s diploma by the La Escuela Elemental de Musica Alejandro Garcia Caturla, in Cuba, in recognition of valuable contribution to the methodology of teaching percussion.His expertise was noticed when he first took a group of Bermudian students to Cuba a few years ago. Mr Ming was asked by Cuban authorities if he was interested in teaching, and he has been doing so for several years since, normally in December.The most recent article about Mr Ming published in the Cuban newspaper Juventud Rebelde reported that percussion students at the Music Conservatory ‘Alejandro García Caturla’ “wait impatiently for Mr Ming’s return”.One of his Cuban students, Amalia Salas Fernández, 12, told Juventud Rebelde: “Every time we meet with Professor Eddie Ming, we live an unforgettable experience. This is because, with him, we learn new ways of playing the drums set, techniques we don’t know; we listen to other musicians and learn things from the culture of his country.“Ming teaches us in a very enjoyable way, as if it was a game and in this way bolsters the knowledge we have been receiving in our school. We are counting the hours to show our parents our progress.”In 2013, Mr Ming plans to take a group of 38 Bermudians, including students and parents, to perform and study in Cuba. Students will range from six to 17-years-old. In Cuba, the students will participate in a five day intensive summer programme, and will also take part in a recital of Bermudian and Cuban students.“It is important for them to be exposed to performing in a different atmosphere with different teachers,” said Mr Ming. “Some of them plan to study music as a career. My older children are quite dedicated but there are so many distractions, you never know what they will do as a future student. Last year we had a cultural exchange programme in Montreal, Canada.”Mr Ming said students are drawn to percussion at an earlier and earlier age. Some of his students are as young as four-years-old.“The teacher has to have a key to find out what works for the individual,” he said. “It is the same thing that applies for books, the trick is to select what material is right for the individual.”