Virgil Donati
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Virgil Donati is a drummer currently playing in the band Planet X, though he has many side projects.
He is considered to be one of the most skilled drummers in the world and is a master of polyrhythms and odd time signatures. He has achieved incredible speed and accuracy at drumming, he is perhaps most well known for his fast double kicking and his unique technique on the bass drum. He holds the drum sticks in the traditional style and is also quite proficient at the keyboard.
His Pearl drum kit consists of a 22x18 bass drum, 10x9 tom, 12x9 tom, 14x12 tom, 16x16 floor tom, 18x16 floor tom, 14x5 Virgil Donati snare drum accompanied by a secondary snare. He also frequently uses innovative 'air toms' which are toms that meet the players head height above the existing toms. Virgil also uses Pearl hardware.
Virgil was born in Melbourne, Australia and grew up there, though these days he spends most of his time in the United States playing with a number of different bands. He got his first drum set at the age of three. He played with his father's band until he was 6 and then started taking classes when he was 7. One of his major influences was Ian Paice of Deep Purple. Virgil Donati became a local hero in Australia around the age of 12. He dropped out of highschool at 16 and ventured to the United States of America soon after.
Virgil was voted the number 1 clinician of the year (2004) by the readers of the popular drummer magazine, Modern Drummer. Virgil's own band 'Planet X' is considered to be one of the best fusion bands of all time.
He has released two studio albums with Planet X; Universe (2000) and Moonbabies (2002), and one live album, Live From Oz (2001).
Some of the bands/projects that Donati has been involved with are:
- Planet X
- On the Virg
- Steve Vai
- Ring of Fire
- Tribal Tech
- Derek Sherinian
- Southern Sons
- Soul Sirkus
- CAB
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