The Story Of Emilie

Raised in a musical family, daughter of pop singer Bojoura and drummer Hans Cleuver (founder of Drumschool Cleuver and drummer of the progressive rock band Focus a.o.), Emilie learned drumming at her parents’ knees.

Drumschool Cleuver has been a famous drumschool in the Netherlands since the early eighties. The school is situated in the basement of the family’s home where Emilie grew up so she was confronted with lots of music and professional musicians from early age. This inspired her to become a drummer. As a child she was found frequently in the studio’s with one of the teachers training, exercising and playing along to music and was raised with music of e.g. Prince, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Earth Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder and Toto.

During High School Emilie started taking lessons from several teachers working at drumschool Cleuver. Her teachers were father Hans Cleuver, Eveline Carels, Oscar Kraal, Richard Heijerman and Richard Moelker a.o.
After High School, she studied (Theoretical) Mathematics at Leiden University and Econometrics at Erasmus University Rotterdam. During that period she studied drums intensively, performing in different bands and projects.

She played in different productions such as Cirque Stiletto (with leading lady Ellen ten Damme), Circus Yab Yum (featuring Nelly Frijda & Richard Groenendijk) and percussion group Slagerij van Kampen.
Apart from being a drummer, Emilie has also developed as a percussion player. She studied different percussion instruments (such as congas, bongos, timbales, cajón and daf) and took lessons from several top percussionists e.g. Adel Gonzalez and Roicel Riveròn. She has grown very fond of Cuban music.

She is experienced now at playing both drums and percussion in (electronic) pop & dance, funk, soul, fusion, hip hop, world, swing, Cuban and West African music.

Next to performing, Emilie is a teacher as well: she teaches at Drumschool Cleuver and also gives percussion and music workshops at schools & companies.

From 2019-2020 Emilie was the drummer in Cirque du Soleil’s big top touring show ‘Amaluna’, touring in North-America & Canada. She also played the drums in Cirque du Soleil events ‘Fieri’ in Malta in 2021 and ‘Fuzion’ in Jeddah, KSA in 2022. Currently she is the drummer in the resident Cirque du Soleil show Joyà in the Riviera Maya in Mexico.