Vadrum

Born in 1983 near Lecce (Italy), Andrea began at a young age to "strike" objects that recall the drums: pots and cups became the first approach of an innate passion. Shortly after, Andrea was offered his first keyboard that he inevitably ended up playing likedrums. That is until he received a real drum set at age 10. After a few months of practice, Andrea becomes part of his first (of many) band with older musicians with whom for a few years will have many live experiences; meanwhile, he began to take lessons from some local drummers. At age 15, Andrea neglected the instrument in order to devote to his other passion: the radio. For 6 years he matures through experiences as a Sound Engineer and DJ on several local radio stations, outstanding clubs, and squares of south Italy. In 2002, he achieved a diploma in the arts at the "Liceo Artistico Statale" (High school) of Lecce. In 2003, Andrea returned to his great passion for the drums in which he became dedicated in exclusive way. In 2004, Andrea began a musical adventure with "Cosmica", an Italian rock band. Over a four year span, Cosmica performed hundreds of live shows, recorded 3 studio albums, won several band competitions, and appeared on many Italian TV and radio shows. During this time, Andrea also had various musical experiences with other Italian bands/groups like "Kaotica" (nu-metal band), "The Wizard" (a revisited classic rock cover band), "PDE" (a drummer & percussionist ensemble directed by Raffaello Murrone), and a Dream Theater cover band. He also collaborated with the acting company "Erasmus International Musical and Theatre" to record soundtracks of the musicals "Footloose" and "Grease". In 2007, Andrea's personal drum performances (recorded in his little home studio) attracted considerable success on his YouTube video channel. His drum arrangement of the Super Mario Bros theme exceeded 4 million views in less than a year allowing Andrea to appear in the ranking of the top worldwide musicians and to be quoted by international press/media. In November 2007, Andrea won the "Drummer of Tomorrow" Italian competition "technical section," issued by Mapex Drums and Casale Bauer, which becomes official endorser. He also won a scholarship and performed in the European final held in Frankfurt, Germany, in March 2008. In May 2008, Andrea joins the great family of artists "Meinl", becoming endorser of the cymbals produced by the prestigious German company. In July 2008 he achieved the bachelor in "Communication Sciences" at the University of Salento, in which he gained work experience as webmaster, creating and managing some websites including the one of the same bachelor course. In September 2008 he moved to Los Angeles, California to further his musical studies at the famous "Musicians Institute" in Hollywood; just a year later he gained the "Certificate in Performance" with honors. In September 2009 he performed in Spain on the prestigious stage of "La Rioja Drumming Festival" along with some drumming legends such as Billy Cobham, Virgil Donati, Jojo Mayer and Dom Famularo. In November 2009 he opened, with a special live performance, the winter edition of "DreamHack" (Sweden), the world's largest computer festival that hosted over 15,000 people from all over the world. Andrea is currently working on his first solo album "Classical Drumming", whose release is planned for autumn 2010. Today his video channel has over 40,000,000 views and is the italian musician's most subscribed of all time (from the birth of YouTube Italy). Andrea's video performances also continue to travel around the world via the local media: among others, his arrangement of "The Barber of Seville" by Rossini was broadcast recently in one of the most popular television shows in Brazil, "Programa do Jô" (TV Globo). Last Update: April 24, 2010 Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.