Sacha Levin

Sacha Levin is a highly accomplished Vancouver-based percussionist with over 20 years of experience performing, recording, and teaching. She has composed original music for powerful documentary films, including Vancouver: No Fixed Address—an exploration of the city’s housing crisis by celebrated filmmaker Charles Wilkinson—which she scored in collaboration with her partner, Michael Simpsonelli. She has also appeared in experimental works, such as a performance at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts with Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Raven Chacon, blending her deep rhythmic roots with boundary-pushing contemporary sound.

Her rhythmic journey has taken her across West Africa, Europe, and Canada, where she studied traditional and contemporary percussion styles and developed a deep understanding of rhythm as both an expressive art form and a tool for connection and healing.
 

Sacha has performed and recorded with many of Vancouver’s finest musicians across a wide spectrum of genres—from folk and funk to jazz and global fusion. She has shared the stage with internationally recognized artists such as Julian Marley, Ron Sexsmith, Celso Machado, 5 Alarm Funk, and Queer as Funk, and continues to be an active force in the city’s vibrant music scene.

She toured extensively throughout Canada and the U.S., including several years with the international ensemble Drum Café, known for high-energy interactive drumming performances at major corporate and community events around the world, working for high-profile clients such as Microsoft, BMW, RBC, among others.
 

Sacha has toured nationally in youth-focused performance groups like SWARM and Dumpsta Dragons, collectively performing over 750 school shows across the country. As a long-time dance accompanist, she continues to work with leading institutions such as Simon Fraser University’s School for Contemporary Arts, The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, and Arts Umbrella, as well as companies like The Training Society, Harbor Dance, and Mascall Dance.
 

Today, Sacha teaches group rhythm and hand drumming classes for kids and adults at East Van Music Lab, where she brings her warmth, creativity, and depth of experience to an inclusive and inspiring learning environment. She has a deep love for improvisation and handpan, and is known for her meditative yet dynamic personal style, blending global percussion influences with intuitive, contemporary expression.
 

She also performs in two ongoing collaborations with Michael Simpsonelli: Shrinking Mountain – an intimate acoustic guitar and handpan duo exploring melodic improvisation and rhythmic storytelling. SMASH! – a high-energy junk percussion group that uses found objects and recycled materials to create explosive rhythmic performances for private and corporate events