About Me
Dusan Milenkovic was born on March 26, 1979 in Belgrade, Serbia. He made his professional debut at the age of sixteen in his hometown by working around Belgrade with some local bands. Dusan got his first drum set from his brother Vladimir when he was 14 years old and briefly after that started to take private lessons from the renowned teacher Vukasin Veljkovic (who toured and played with some of the most famous names in jazz music), from whom he received valuable instruction. Dusan was practicing six to eight hours a day. He didn’t go anywhere without drum sticks in his pocket and would beat out rhythms on any available surface. Early influences which Dusan likes to cite range from Buddy Rich, Max Roach and Elvin Jones to Lewis Nash, Steve Smith and Vinnie Colaiuta.
At the age of 23 he went to Paris to “try his luck,†during this time love towards Latin music took him on a short trip to Cuba where he received a lot of valuable information about Cuban culture and music. After one year spent in Paris, Dusan decided to move to Vienna and in 2004 he enrolled at Vienna Conservatory under the guided instruction of Prof. Peter Gabis, who inspired him to go even deeper in the roots of jazz music. Dusan entered the Vienna jazz scene in 2005 after touring as a sideman for a few successful blues, rock and cover bands. After a brief gig in one of the jazz clubs, he had become the “second call†jazz drummer in Vienna, working with lot of different musicians around the town. He had participated in workshops lead by: Steve Smith, Dave Weckl, Jimmy Cobb, Gregg Bissonette, Zoro, Dom Famularo, Steve Ferrone, Rodney Holmes… He is known among musicians as a versatile drummer being able to play in many different styles. Dusan Milenkovic uses Sonor and Yamaha drums, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth "Peter Erskine" Signature Sticks and brushes, Remo Drum Heads, AKG Microphones, DW Bass Drum Pedals and Gibraltar hardware…Profile edited with CricketSoda's Myspace Editor
