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Classical Drumming - Out Now!

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INTRODUCTION:

From web to theatre, from Super Mario Bros to Gioacchino Rossini, Italian drummer Andrea Vadrucci (alias Vadrum) climbed over the borders of genres, reaching the heart of an extraordinary number of people around the world.
His YouTube channel has over 95 million views and has long held the record for number of subscriptions in Italy.
After winning the Drummer of Tomorrow national contest and after graduating from Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, he performed in prestigious international events, sharing the stage with drumming icons such as Billy Cobham and Steve Gadd.
In 2011 he released the solo album Classical Drumming, recorded at Paisiello Theatre in Lecce featuring a 36-piece symphonic orchestra. A successful experiment, which took first place on Amazon MP3 in the U.S., Japan, Italy, Spain and France.
Andrea is endorsed by brands Zildjian, Tama and Vic Firth, and he was recently included in the top 500 most famous drummers of all time on the website Drummerworld.com
Besides his solo career, Andrea is very active as session man in the studio and live on stage: he recently completed a 2-year world tour with the renowned Cirque du Soleil as a featured drummer in their show KOOZA, he sailed the length and breadth of the Mediterranean playing with the inaugural orchestras of Celebrity Apex and Celebrity Beyond, the innovative and award-winning American cruise ships Celebrity Cruises, and performed a World Cruise voyage with the Rolling Stone Lounge band aboard Holland America Zuiderdam.

Andrea is currently the drummer on the Disney Wish, Disney Cruise Line's latest and greatest cruise ship, sailing from Port Canaveral, Florida to the Bahamas.

Andrea Vadrucci (Vadrum)

BIOGRAPHY:

I. Childhood, the radio and the first bands

Born in 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 became 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 put the instrument aside in order to devote to his other passion: the radio. For 5-6 years he matured experiences as a Sound Engineer and DJ on several local radio stations (Radio Studio 104, Studio 99, Radio Rama, Radio Manbassa, etc...), outstanding clubs (among which in 2003 he is the resident dj at the former "Operà" in Maglie, Italy), 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 (including opening concerts for bands like "Extrema", "Soulfly", etc...), 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 M° 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".

II. YouTube, the studies and the beginning of the Vadrum project

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, for which became official endorser. He also won a scholarship and performed in the European final held in Frankfurt, Germany, in March 2008.
In May 2008, Andrea joined 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 he 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 was 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.

III. Classical Drumming, endorsements and solo live performances

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 started 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.

IV. Session man and long tours

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 musical events of Italy 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.

V. Cirque du Soleil, the wedding and the return to the web

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.
In September 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.

VI. The cruise ship years

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 in June 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 returned 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 well-known American gymnast Simone Biles, was officially inaugurated in April 2022 in Southampton, UK 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.
In July 2022, his first child, Luca, was born.
In March 2023 he left for the "Grand World Voyage" aboard Holland America Line MS Zuiderdam playing for 4 months with the "Rolling Stone Lounge" band, a one-of-a-kind musical experience at sea, born from the partnership between RWS Entertainment Group and the well-known American magazine Rolling Stone. After brief rehearsals at RWS Studios in New York, Andrea toured over 20 countries playing more than 300 sets around the globe, from South Africa to Iceland.
In November 2023, he became part of the big Disney family. After a few weeks of rehearsals in Toronto, Canada, Andrea returned to the United States to board the "Disney Wish", Disney Cruise Line's latest and greatest cruise ship, sailing from Port Canaveral, Florida to the Bahamas. On board, he took part as the drummer in various original production shows (including the instant classics "Pirate's Rockin' Parlay Party" and "Disney Victrophonics") and in a series of musical sets with various lineups, together with a cast of exceptional talent coming from all over the world.

His video channel, with over 95,000,000 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: May 15, 2024


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