Drummer Paul Houle is helping businesses find a new rhythm

Percussionist Paul Houle has landed a new gig. After 20 years teaching and performing, the Toronot musician is playing to a different audience: corporate clients. Two years ago Houle launched Boom! The Power of Rhythm and began offering team-building drumming workshops to businesses looking to hit a higher note. Music can bring pople together, says Houle: "I was sure that employees would be open to leadership, teamwork and creativity exercises that didn't involve games or sports."

Houle was right. Boom! has drummed up a who's who of corporat clients, including Hewlettt-Packard, Phamacia Canada, HMV Canada and Universal Records. Corporate customers now account for more than 50% of Boom's revenue, up 255 from last year. What's the attraction? It's a fun, uplifting, unique experience that taps the inner child in everyone, says Houle. Besides, you don't have to be athletic to play.

Houle, a Royal Conservatory of Music teacher for the past 13 years, developed his program in 1994 to teach students to use music to develop listening, leadership and co-operative skills. Led by Houle, participants learn to play simple parts on handdrums and shakers, eventually combining them into an ensemble. When a friend suggested companies might benefit from the program, Houle leaped at the opportunity.

Last February, Toronto-based publisher Harlequin Enterprises hired Boom! to drum out the stress caused by the merger of two of its divisions. "We wanted everyone to loosen up and start getting to know one another," says Stephanie Wilson Chapin, manager of Harlequin's direct-marketing group. At Houle's workshop, 85 staff were each handed an instrument to play. The predictable result: aural chaos. "We sounded truly horrible," says Wilson Chapin. "We learned that to create something worthwile, we had to work as a team. In music, as at the office, every individual contributes to the end result." The event, says Wilson Chapin, "helped staff see the importance of working as a team."

That's music to Houle's ears. Besides teaching and performing, he conducts some 150 educational and corporate sessions a year. For Houle, the beat really goes on.
Kara Kuryllowicz