Andrea Paino

Andrea was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy and first became interested in the drums at the age of sixteen. Right from the start he took private lessons with various Calabrian drummers . Thanks to these he not only improved his drumming, but also continued to find new stimulation on the instrument. For several years he studied and played with different bands from Southern Italy, varying widely in both musical genre (rock, pop and progressive, including performance of original pieces with the singer song-writer) and in the type of setting (numerous concerts, radio performances and the recording of some CDs).At the age of twenty he felt the need to expand his musical knowledge so he decided to move near Milan. Here he studied at CPM and Contemporaneously he also attended music courses held at The Biella Art Works. During this period Andrea decided that he wanted to advance his drumming in two well-defined areas: Afro-Cuban/Fusion and Prog-Rock. This encouraged him to take some private lessons with two great experts in the area: Alex Battini de Barreiro and Riccardo Merlini. While living in Northern Italy he gained much experience playing live with bands in several style of music, challanging hiself in style such as Jazz, Fusion and Afro-Cuban. Since 2004 he has also been teaching many students, giving him the great opportunity to put to the test both his technical preparation and interpersonal skills. In 2007 Andrea realized his dream to study in America!!! Since June 5, 2007 he has been attending advanced level courses at The Collective in manhattan New York where he had the privilege to learn from teachers as Peter Retzlaff, Frank Katz, Kim Plainfield, Frank Gravis, Jason Gianni, Marco Djordjevic etc…. and privately with masters such as John Riley and Tommy Igoe. During March 2008 he did a tour clinic as a Drumtech for Frank Katz (Drummer Collective's teacher) travelling all around Italy. In November 2008, he finaly got is diploma and graduaded with excellency. He also got a special mention from the director of the school and from Vince Cherico(Caraibbian Jazz Project) and Brad Flickinger(Brodway show). Back in Italy from December 2008, is now plaing with the Rock band call Repley, touring pervasively in Italy. He also teaching in his own studio and in several other place.