Lise Duarte Nuñez

Lise Duarte Nuñez

Lise Duarte Nuñez is a French-Argentine orchestral percussionist, educator, and researcher, GROVER PRO and DragonFly Percussion artist, whose work focuses on orchestral percussion and, in particular, on the artistic potential of orchestral accessories. Her activity brings together performance, higher music education, artistic research, and digital outreach, with the aim of making orchestral percussion repertoire and its possibilities more accessible to a new generation of musicians around the world.

Born in Buenos Aires, Lise began her musical training at the Conservatorio Alberto Ginastera de Morón with Marcelo De Matthaeis. At the age of 15, she received her first major recognition by winning a competition organised by the Fondo Nacional de las Artes, which awarded her a scholarship to continue her studies in Córdoba under the guidance of Anibal Borzone. She later obtained her percussion diploma at the Conservatorio Ginastera before continuing her studies at the Universidad Nacional de Lanús, where she worked with Pablo La Porta, Martín Diez, and Fabián Keoroglanian.

Driven by a constant search for artistic and technical excellence, Lise moved to France, where she obtained the Diplôme National Supérieur Professionnel de Musicien (DNSPM) and the Diplôme d’État de Professeur de Musique (DE) at the Pôle Supérieur Paris Boulogne-Billancourt. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Musicology from Sorbonne Université. At the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris, under the guidance of Éric Sammut, she was awarded the Prix de Marimba. At the CRR de Cergy-Pontoise, where she studied with Alain Huteau, she received Gold Medals in Chamber Music and Percussion. She is also a three-time laureate of the Percussive Arts Society Italy Competition (2018, 2024, and 2025).

As a performer, Lise has appeared on major French stages, including the Cité de la Musique and the Philharmonie de Paris. She has collaborated with ensembles and orchestras including the Orchestre Symphonique Divertimento, Orchestre EDF, New International Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Jeune Orchestre Européen Hector Berlioz – Isère (JOEHB).

Since 2022, Lise has been a tenured percussion professor at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Cergy-Pontoise, where she teaches percussion and contributes to the development of young musicians. Alongside her institutional work, she maintains an international pedagogical activity, giving masterclasses and workshops in the United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, Poland, France, South America, and across Europe.

Orchestral accessories and the art of listening

A distinctive part of Lise’s artistic identity is her exploration of orchestral accessories. Through empirical research, performance practice, and pedagogical development, she investigates new ways of approaching the sound, gesture, colour, and musical function of instruments such as the tambourine, triangle, cymbals, castanets, and bass drum.

Her approach considers these instruments not as secondary elements of the orchestral palette, but as highly expressive musical voices capable of transforming colour, character, articulation, movement, and musical architecture. Her work explores the relationship between what a musician hears, what they imagine, and how technical choices ultimately shape the sound that reaches the audience.

The MTDM Method

This philosophy is also at the heart of Lise’s pedagogical work and of the MTDM — Módulo de Toma de Decisiones Musicales, a framework she developed to help musicians build greater interpretive autonomy.

The MTDM places musical intention before technical action. Rather than prescribing a single way of playing, it provides a structured process through which musicians can observe, listen, analyse, identify musical function, imagine sound, make technical decisions, develop a gesture, and evaluate the resulting sound.

At the centre of this approach is a simple principle: technique is a consequence of musical intention. The goal is not to produce standardised interpretations, but to help each musician develop the ability to make conscious, informed, and personally meaningful artistic decisions.

The Cuaderno de Decisiones Musicales (Notebook of Musical Decisions) translates this philosophy into a practical working tool, allowing musicians to document their questions, hypotheses, technical choices, listening, and reflections throughout the interpretive process.

Music, education, and transmission

Lise’s commitment to music education also extends beyond the conservatory. In collaboration with the Hospital de Pontoise (France) and the therapeutic centre Les P’tits Loups, she works with children with autism and other cognitive or developmental challenges, using rhythm, listening, and percussion as tools for communication, connection, and social interaction.

Her educational and artistic work is accompanied by a strong digital presence. Under the name @lisepercussion, her content has reached more than 10 million views across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. Her orchestral performances, educational videos, and technical explorations are followed by a growing international community of percussionists, students, teachers, and music lovers.

Through performance, teaching, research, and digital communication, Lise Duarte Nuñez continues to explore how even the most subtle percussion instrument can reshape an orchestral interpretation — and how a deeper understanding of sound can lead to greater artistic freedom.