About the artists
Cuban-born drummer Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez began his professional musical journey early in life. He has worked with Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, Tito Puente, and many other giants of the Latin and jazz musical communities. He’s become one of the busiest and most followed drummers on the scene, lauded for his mind-bending independence, creativity, and musicality with artists as diverse as Michel Camilo, Santana, Roy Hargrove, McCoy Tyner, and Kip Hanrahan. Horacio has also been an active educator, conducting classes and seminars at Drummers Collective, the New School, and the Berklee School Of Music and at NAMM and Percussive Arts Society conventions. He’s the author of the popular method book 'Conversations In Clave' and the cocreator, along with Giovanni Hidalgo, of the highly regarded dvd 'Traveling Through Time'.

Aquiles Priester is among the most fascinating and talked-about extreme metal musicians on the planet. Aquiles first came to prominence with the heavy metal band Hangar, with which he’s recorded several albums. In 2001 he joined Angra, the most popular melodic metal group in Brazil. He has also been very visible in conducting drum clinics at home in Brazil, as well as in Europe and Asia. In 2004 he released his first instructional dvd, 'Inside My Drum', followed by an instructional book focusing on his advanced double bass technique, 'Inside My PsychoBook: 100 Double Bass Patterns', plus a second dvd, 'The Infallible Reason Of My Freak Drumming'.

Jeff "Tain" Watts is among the most revered jazz drummers of the modern age. Besides possessing remarkable control, power, speed, and independence, Jeff exudes style and soul, and he’s that rare artist with a sincerely unique musical vision. Holding the distinction of being the only musician to appear on every Grammy-winning jazz record by Branford and Wynton Marsalis, Jeff is routinely name-checked as the player to whom up-and-coming jazz drummers are compared.

Trevor Lawrence Jr. is a highly in-demand R&B and hip-hop session and touring drummer, as well as a successful producer. He has worked with Mariah Carey, Lionel Richie, Ashanti, Jennifer Lopez, Taj Mahal, Macy Gray, the Temptations, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Herbie Hancock, Dr. Dre, and 50 Cent.

Since playing with the legendary ska-punk band Fishbone right out of high school, Gil Sharone has made a name for himself in several distinct musical genres, including avant-garde rock (Stolen Babies, Dillinger Escape Plan, Puscifer), 2 Tone ska (Dave Wakeling), reggae (Eek-A-Mouse), and metal (Otep).

John Riley is among an elite group of jazz drumming performers and educators, recording and playing with greats including Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Scofield, Mike Stern, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and John Patitucci, and authoring the highly regarded tutorials 'The Art of Bop Drumming', 'Beyond Bop Drumming', and 'The Jazz Drummer’s Workshop'.

Jim Riley is the drummer and bandleader for the contemporary country band Rascal Flatts, which is not only a top-selling country act but also one of the most successful groups in any genre, selling more than 20 million albums and staging top-grossing tours.

About the festival
The Modern Drummer Festival is one of the world's longest-running and most successful drumming events. The 2011 edition occurs during Modern Drummer magazine's 35th Anniversary year-bringing together drummers, drum enthusiasts, and drum company representatives from across the United States and around the world.

Extracurricular master classes and drum circles mark the continued expansion of the educational and recreational drumming activities that were incorporated into the Festival in 2010. The 2011 master classes require separate admission, while all attendees are invited to participate in community drum circles held in the outdoor area adjacent to the theater (weather permitting).