Andrea Piccioni was born in Rome in 1970 and started very early his studies of world percussion. With Arnaldo Vacca he started the study of instruments and styles of the Mediterranean tradition, especially tamburello and frame drums. These studies went on with Glen Velez, Michael Metzler, Alfio Antico, masters Djamchid and Bijian Chemirani and Turkish maestros (with whom he deepened the study of Sufi musical tradition) and Indians teachers (Carnatic music).
Subsequently he began playing with a number of elderly musicians who are among the few remaining exponents of that particular style of Italian tradition. These different experiences lead him to conceive the Italian tamburello as an instrument for any musical context. For this reason he developed a personal execution technique, related to specific exercises to develop the use of the instrument in a 360 degrees inside Andrea’s book “Il Tamburello italiano”.
Andrea is an internationally acclaimed virtuoso whose amazing talent is expressed on a vasty array of Oriental as well as Western percussion instruments. He makes workshops and performs all over the world. During his career he had the chance to perform with great artists from the international panorama like Ganesh Kumar, Omar Faruk Trebllek, Glen Velez, Nidi D’arac, Indaco, Sari Gul whirling dervish orchestra and many others.
He is Co-founder of Frame Drums Europe associations and Artistic director of European Frame Drummers Meeting. Andrea contributes to the Italian magazine Percusioni. Play Anklang Musikwelt and Schlagwerk percussion.
His instruments: tamburello, tammorra, riqq, bendir, daf, bodhran, ghaval, def, kanjira, darbuka, zarb, cajon, jew’s harp, overtone singing.
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
