Patrick Kunka

Patrick Kunka is a 22 year-old drummer from Aberdeen, Scotland currently studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston with funding from the Berklee World Scholarship Tour, the Berklee Achievement-based Scholarship, and the Sabian Scholarship. Some of his most influential teachers have been Steve Davis at the Aebersold summer school, and Jon Hazilla and Bob Kaufman at Berklee. In 2008 Patrick had the opportunity to take part in some master classes with the great Joe Lovano.
While at Berklee, Patrick has played in a huge variety of ensembles and groups from trios to big bands, playing everything from classical music to contemporary fusion. Some of his main influences on the drums include Greg Hutchinson, Antonio Sanchez, Jeff Watts, Elvin Jones and Bill Stewart while he is also heavily influenced, particularly in his composition, by musicians such as McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, Kenny Garrett, and J.S. Bach.
In Spring 2008 Patrick was awarded the Keith Copeland/Sabian Award for "outstanding musicianship" from the Berklee Percussion Department, and went on to achieve the highest possible Berklee ensemble ratings of 8888. He was also nominated for an award for jazz composition by the Berklee Harmony department.