Andrea Piccioni

Andrea Piccioni, a native of Rome, is a master performer on frame drums. After mastering the Italian tamburello, Andrea studied frame drum rhythms and performance techniques from the Middle East, India, North Africa, and Central Asia, crossing with his style the boundaries of jazz, world, and early music.
​He is touring worldwide with artists such as Bobby McFerrin, Paul McCandless, Riccardo Tesi, Gianluigi Trovesi, Sanubar Tursun, Basel Rajoub, Luciano Biondini, Les Haulz et Les Bas, Aga Khan Ensemble, Manfred Leuchter, Lucilla Galeazzi, Masters of Frame Drums, Caitrìona O’Leary, Donàl Lunny, Wu Man.
In parallel he’s a popular teacher at major festivals, universities and conservatories around the world as well. Andrea published DVDs and books dealing with the Italian frame drums and rhythm language. Andrea is since 2020 professor of Frame Drums class at the Conservatory of Catanzaro, IT.

" …an absolute master of frame drums." - MUSICA JAZZ MAGAZINE​


"As Piccioni puts it, in drumming "mind, body and drum" are in balance in the transformation of energy from the performer to the audience. Piccioni has reinvented, perhaps even standardized what we now call the "modern tamburello" with a philosophical and linguistic approach borrowed from oriental onomatopoeia.
Under his fingers, nimble, armed with a touch darting like flames, he pressed more and more and never ceased to amaze the game of intertwined rhythms between jingles and beats. Spectacular. Acrobatic leaps of martial art. Funambulistic and professional. It is not correct to speak of virtuosity for Piccioni, everything succeeds in being millimetric, never strained but fresh, easy, untouchable by fatigue. The tambourine becomes a direct emanation of the soul, there is never any separation between the instrument and the interpreter. Never a drop of tension."
​(SALVATORE MORRA) - IL GIORNALE DELLA MUSICA