I was born and raised in Scotch Plains, NJ.  My mother’s father and brother were drummers, so I’ve been around drums my whole life. I have memories of being propped up at the kitchen table, barely able to hold sticks, banging around with the two of them.  I was eventually given my first set of drums at the age of 4.  I didn’t take formal lessons growing up.  Instead, I learned to play from listening and replication.  I would steal cd’s from the rack my parents had in the living room, bring them down to the basement, blast them from the boombox I had next to my drums and play along.  Luckily my parent’s collection had some great drummers in it.  Their collection was mostly filled with albums by The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Steve Miller Band, and the likes.

When I got into high school I ditched sports and played in every group the school could offer.  The group I always looked forward to the most was the jazz band.  Although I had grown up playing along with steady rock songs, the creative freedom that playing in the jazz band gave me was intriguing.  Through this experience my interests in jazz and world music grew.  I went on to receive my B.M. in Jazz Performance from NJCU and M.M. in Jazz studies from William Paterson University.  In college my admiration for and relationship with jazz thrived.  I remember listening to Roy Haynes on Chick Corea’s Now He Sings, Now He Sobs album and thinking to myself “I didn’t know music could sound like this.”

During college my curiosity in composing started.  When I began to learn more about harmony it informed my drumming in a great way.  Through seeking more I eventually began to compose.  I released my debut recording Patience in 2012 featuring Joe Magnarelli, Rich Perry, Adrian Moring, Billy Test, and Jeremy Fratti.  It’s a collection of my compositions for piano trio, quartet with two tenors, and quintet along with an arrangement of a composition by one of my inspirations Thelonious Monk.  In 2014 I released my second album titled Yellow Petals with the Jon Di Fiore Trio featuring Adrian Moring and Billy Test.  The compositions on this album explore the setting of the piano trio, but are influenced by Jazz, Classical, African, Spanish, and modern music.  In October 2017 I digitally released my third album Two Sided Truth.  This album also features the Jon Di Fiore Trio.

I have been fortunate to perform and record with some of the most sought after musicians in NYC including Bucky Pizzarelli, Steve LaSpina, Joel Frahm, Randy Brecker, Matthew Fries, Steve Davis, Scott Robinson, Paul Meyers, and Jim Ridl to name a few, as well as international artists like Jorge Armani from Argentina.

I also freelance as a percussionist making my Lincoln Center debut at Avery Fisher Hall performing with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony in May of 2011, and performing the ’07 & ’08 seasons with the New Jersey Metropolitan Orchestra.  In 2010 I was honored to perform as a featured soloist at the Percussive Arts Society’s New Jersey Day of Percussion and in 2009 I was awarded the Thomas H. Kean Award for Performance from the New Jersey Arts Foundation.

e