Donny Gruendler was born and raised in the diverse Musical surroundings of Detroit, Michigan. As a result, Gruendler grew up alongside an unusually broad range of influences including: Rock, Soul, Funk, Pop, Hip Hop, traditional Swing, Hard Bop, and Blues. It was during these developmental years that he began to surf on the drums as well. (See photo.)



At age twenty, Gruendler graduated from Berklee College of Music with a Bachelor’s of Music Degree. At age 21, he earned his Master’s of Music Degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.



Donny Gruendler - now living in Los Angeles, California – can be found performing in a wide variety of Musical genres. Thus, Gruendler has Performed, Programmed, Toured and Recorded Behind such diverse artists as Kenny Burrell, John Medeski, D.J. Logic, Rhett Frazier Inc., Rick Holmstrom, Rebecca St. James, iTunes first unsigned Artist Jody Whitesides, Julia Fly, Denny Freeman and numerous other independent Los Angeles based artists.



Consequently he has become and expert at performing with backing tracks, manually triggering samples, and playing with loops (both live and in the studio). Additionally, he has programmed (and played on) numerous jingles (Remax On the Blvd Radio/TV Campaigns, KFC, and NPR), created content for sample and loop libraries (East West, Eclectic Ensembles) and even writes Music for TV and film.



As for education, Donny Gruendler is a faculty member at Musicians Institute (PIT) in Hollywood, CA, he is the author of Playing With Drum Loops - How to Work with Loops, Samples and Backing Tracks by Carl Fischer Publishing - and he has a series of articles published in Modern Drummer as of May 2006. Furthermore, he has performed at several PASIC conventions.