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Born on December 14th, 1983 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, he was offered his first keyboard that
he inevitably ended up playing like drums.  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, he
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 famous 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 and opened the concert
for Michel Camilo and Tomatito, firing and conquering
the spanish crowd. 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.
In 2010, returned to Italy, Andrea devoted himself primarily
to work in studio, recording for various international
artists inluding the Dutch singer and songwriter Chielio
Reedijk, the American band "EdToShred" and the
Italo-English acting company "Erasmus International
Musical and Theatre" for which recorded the soundtrack
for the new musical "Alice in Wonderland".
 In
the summer 2010 he performed for UNESCO in Otranto (Italy)
and on September 12, he is in the line-up of the famous
Dutch "Drumworld Festival", with big name drummers
like Steve Gadd, Mel Gaynor (drummer for the band "Simple
Minds"), Todd Sucherman and Mike Terrana.
On January 21, 2011, he released his debut solo album
that features a 36-piece symphonic orchestra. "Classical
Drumming", title of the album created and produced
by Andrea (published by the label "Vadrum Records"),
immediately starts to get important feedbacks and results,
such as obtaining the first position in the "Amazon
MP3" chart in the U.S., Japan, Italy, Spain and France,
the debut in sixth place and the six-week stay in the
U.S. "Billboard" chart and as many high placements
in other countries and other digital stores like "iTunes".
 In
March 2011 he joined the prestigious "Zildjian"
Family of Artists, the legendary world's leading cymbal
company and in December of the same year he became endorser
for the brand "Tama", the historical Japanese
drums and hardware manufacturer.
Meanwhile Andrea took an intense live activity in the
south of Italy, both as solo artist and session player
with various bands and musicians (among the others, he
took a thrilling "one night only" with the renowned
Italian guitarist Andrea Braido), ranging from rock to
dance music, from classical to Italian song and he began
to hold his first drum clinics.
 Among
the many solo concerts of 2012, he performed at "Videogames
Party", the largest Italian touring festival dedicated
to entertainment in digital format, and at the picturesque
Aragonese Castle of Otranto (Italy) in the exhibition
"Summer Pop - Tribute to Andy Warhol", which
devoted a permanent installation to the "Classical
Drumming" album and to Andrea's creative videos.
In November 2012 he was rectruited by the Italian well-known
trumpeter and singer Roy Paci to be part of the experimental
project "Corleone" with whom he recorded the
album "Blaccahénze" released at the beginning
of 2013 by the label "Etnagigante". It followed
a long tour in some of the most important stages and Italian
musical events such as the  "Auditorium
Parco della Musica" in Rome and the "Turin Jazz
Festival" (on some dates he also played drums for
SYD aka "See You Downtown" by producer John
Lui). The project attracted considerable interest from
the public and critics, going to earn the prestigious
cover of "Musica Jazz" magazine in May and signing
the initial theme and various tracks for the new season
of "Moby Dick", one of the most popular programs
of the Italian Rai Radio2.
In the meantime, Andrea was chosen as the protagonist
of the new communication campaign by the Presidency of
the Italian Council of Ministers for the promotion of
Simplified Srl, creating one of the four advertisements
aired in March and April on Italian Rai Tv networks and
on the YouTube channel of the initiative that answered
the question "What do I do with 1 euro?".
In the summer of 2013, between the two tranches of the
Corleone tour, he was hired as drummer for the summer
tour of "Aretuska", the main project of Roy
Paci.
In October 2013 Andrea was on the "Batterika"
stage, the largest and richest Italian event dedicated
to drums and percussions.
In 2014 he began a collaboration with Roland Italy, experimenting
with the use of electronic drumsets and percussive samplers.
In the meantime he worked at making the new Roy Paci's
album and recorded the single "Italians do it Better"
which includes, among others, the featuring of Saturnino
Celani (Jovanotti) on bass. The video for the single -
recorded at "Casa Bertallot" in Milan and aired
in high rotation on the main music televisions including
MTV - was released in June and marked the beginning of
the new summer tour of "Roy Paci & Aretuska All
Stars" that involved Andrea for the first half of
the dates.
 In
August 2014 he joined the world renowned "Cirque
du Soleil" starting a long world tour with the role
of featured drummer in the show "KOOZA".
The show, which saw Andrea as the first Italian artist
ever, toured in Spain, Poland, Germany, England (with
60 shows at the prestigious "Royal Albert Hall"
in London) and Switzerland, totaling more than one million
spectators during the lucky European leg. In the meantime
he performed with a special solo performance at the "Roland
Dealer Meeting" in Barcelona, Spain and received
a recognition for his career from the town of Vernole,
Italy.
 In
the second half of 2015 KOOZA hit the road in the United
States and Canada and in 2016 toured in South America.
During the time in Buenos Aires, Andrea held a succesful
solo concert at the historic "The Roxy Live",
exciting the Argentinian audience.
In August 2016, after exactly 2 years and 563 show, he
completed his experience with KOOZA and returned to solely
concentrate on his solo projects.
 In
March 2017 Andrea officially joined the "Vic Firth"
family, the undisputed world leader in the production
of high quality drumsticks and mallets, and during the
same month he took a solo concert in Bucharest, opened
by some of the best drummers of the Romanian scene.
On September 12, 2017 he married his partner Elena in
Lecce after 11 years of life together.
In October 2017 he performed in Poland in a double concert
(and tribute to Franz Waxman) and he was a guest of the
26th edition of the historic "Drum Fest" festival
which included in the remarkable line-up artists such
as Terry Bozzio and Frank Gambale.
 In
the three-year period 2017-2019 Andrea created numerous
videos for the web, some of which in collaboration with
Roland Italy, experimenting with new percussive technologies
and ranging between the various musical genres.
During this time he also produced studio recordings for
various artists (including Roy Paci and Benjamin Harrison,
bandleader for "Alegria", the iconic Cirque
du Soleil show) and resumed his live activity with some
multi-genre formations in Southern Italy.
 In April 2020, in full lockdown by Coronavirus, he made
a video involving 65 drummers from more than 20 countries
and in June he opened with a double online performance
the second edition of "JOIN", the first Italian virtual
event dedicated to videogames developers, sponsored by
Intel and held on AltspaceVR.
In October 2020 he flew to Miami, Florida to join the
inaugural team of "Celebrity Apex", the new luxury cruise ship
by the American Celebrity Cruises. Due to the global pandemic, the inauguration of the ship
postponed to the new year and on June 19, 2021 it officially
made its debut in the Mediterranean Sea, with stops in the
Greek islands, Cyprus and Croatia.
 With the "Apex Orchestra", Andrea performed in various productions
and shows ranging from rock to jazz, from big band to world music,
in a theater and on a state-of-the-art stage. During the 6 months
on board, he also accompanied various guest entertainers from all
over the world, including some stars of "Britain's Got Talent"
(Andrew Derbyshire and Vox Fortura), "Holland's Got Talent" (Claire Maidin)
and "The Voice UK" (Belle Voci).
 In January 2022 he returns to Miami to take part in the creation of new shows for "Celebrity Beyond", the third cruise ship of Celebrity Cruises' groundbreaking and award-winning "Edge Series". The ship, captained by Kate McCue (America's first female cruise ship captain) and christened by the well-known American gymnast Simone Biles, was officially inaugurated on April 27, 2022 in Southampton, United Kingdom and took Andrea to perform around the Mediterranean with a whole series of new multi-genre productions and with as many high-profile international guest enternainers, with repertoires ranging from Broadway and West End to Opera.
His video channel, with over 90,000,000 views, held the
record for number of subscriptions in Italy for a long
time. 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 in one of the most popular television shows
in Brazil, "Programa do Jô" (TV Globo).
Last Update: July 18, 2022
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