Gilad

Percussionist, composer, and clinician Gilad has been called "one of the world's top percussionists" by Jazziz magazine. Bill Meredith, assistant editor of Jazziz magazine, said "like Willie Bobo and Alex Acuna, Gilad excels at both drums and percussion - but unlike those great players, the Israel-born, Middle Eastern-inspired player excels at both simultaneously through his hybrid drum/percussion setup."

Gilad was considered an outstanding child prodigy. He started performing professionally at the age of 7 and his musical upbringing started with classical music, eventually leading to a performance with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the well-known Zubin Mehta.

Said Alon Bor, Principle Percussionist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, "Gilad's success as a performer with Israel's world-class popular and classical musical ensembles prove him to be one of the most accomplished musicians Israel had produced."

Gilad has gone on to put together and play with many ethnic groups, creating and performing many styles of original music. He performed in theater and TV productions and quickly became "first-call" to many leading pop artists.

Since moving to New York in 1990, Gilad has been in constant demand for both live performances and studio recordings in the New York area and around the world. He has been a member of of Al Di Meola's "World Sinfonia," touring extensively all over the world, and played on the CD "The Grand Passion".

Gilad's performance and compositional styles draw on diverse range of musical traditions, including Middle Eastern, North African, West African, Brazilian, Classical and Jazz. He shares his musical experience with great musicians such as Mike Stern, Toots
Teilman, Dennis Chambers, Cornelius Bampus, Randy Brecker, Mark Johnson, Ornette Coleman, Kenny Werner, Oliver Lake , Joshua Redman, Mark Eagen, Richard Bona, Uri kaine, Giora Feigman, Omar Faruk Telibek, and many more.
For the past few years, Gilad has been playing and touring with legendary jazz singer Mark Murphy, the great bassist Santi Debriano band, Circle Chant, and violin star Regina Carter. He has also been recording and touring with his trios: ON 3 (with Vinny Valentino), and Trio Del Sol ( with Freddie Bryant and Misha Piatigorsky).

Recently, he participated in two recording projects, one with Brad Mehldau, and one with Steve Smith and Vital Information. You can hear Gilad's playing on the sound track of the award winning movie "Kissing Jessica Stain." He also performs extensively in the New York area Jazz clubs.
Gilad is sponsored by Istanbul Agop cymbals,Vic firth sticks, Pearl drums and percussion, Everyone's drumming D'jembes and Talking drums, AMT microphones and TKL cases.