Daniele Cavalca

Born in Montecchio Emilia (Italy) on October 8th 1987, Daniele began playing drums at the age of six taking lessons at the music school of Gatttatico, his hometown. At the age of 15 he entered the conservatory where he studied classical percussion and took courses of composition. After he graduated he moved to Milan where he got accepted at the Accademia Internazionale della Musica mastering his skills in orchestral percussion under the guidance of David Searcy, Jonathan Scully and Mike Quinn. During this period in Milan he also took private lessons with drummer Marco Volpe and day-by-day he realized that being a drummer was his main goal. In January 2010 he started a new experience that brought him oversea:

He was admitted at the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he received a scholarship. During his four years at the college he had the opportunity to collaborate with talented musicians, develop his skills as drummer, jazz composer and exploring courses such as conducting and electronic production: In the fall of 2013 he finally graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Jazz Composition and a minor in Conducting.

Since he was in middle school Daniele played drums with rock pop bands in the north Italy area and he also performed with a few projects as a vibraphonist.

During the years he started collaborating as a studio drummer and not least, he joined a street percussion ensemble called Dadadang with which he performed in two festivals in Liverpool and Bilbao. Parallel to the contemporary/popular music, he also took part of a musical theater production as a drummer and played orchestral percussion in different seasons performing West Side Story, Carmina Burana, Madama Butterfly working with renowned conductors such as Wayne Marshall and Ilmar Lapinsch.

In 2009 he start collaborating with Claudio Scolari as a drummer, percussionist and pianist recording the albums Colors of Red Island and Synthesis: an original modern jazz project that received more than 40 reviews in the US, Japan and Europe.

During his studies at Berklee, while taking part of different projects, he had the opportunity of performing at the BPC, at the College Jazz Fest and Just before graduating he had been chosen to perform as a drummer at the Berklee commencement concert with the participation of the guest artists Annie Lennox, Carole King and Willie Nelson. Even during his last semester at the college, he had a great opportunity to perform as drummer, arranger and conductor in a concert that featured trombonist Robin Eubanks, and not least, he got an original piece selected and performed by the Berklee Jazz Concert Orchestra directed by renowned arranger Greg Hopkins. Expanding his musical taste he recorded and produced an electro-minimal album with an Italian DJ realized for a fashion show in Italy and he’s now working on a solo Project of electronic music.