Hi, I'm Oliver!

Photo by Michael Spanuth

Born in 1970, professional drummer since 1992 .

I am a so called freelance musician, playing all styles of music and I am also a teacher for drums and music coach and all the other questions that go along when it comes to a life of being  musician.

For more details about my way to music feel free to check my history section below.

Thank you for stopping by, all the best!

Starting Out

My grandparents played the piano, my grandpa also the organ. So my Mom played the piano too.

I followed these footsteps as soon as I could sit on the piano bench.

Piano lessons were part of my younger years, leading me through the classical education of learning piano, I enjoyed it very much and I was always fascinated by the sound of music and the sensation of creating music and sounds.

I started to compose my own little songs quite early, just for fun!

Later a little Trumpet playing came to my drum practice, because it was lying around the house, but I never got further into it….

For some reason I started to pick up at some point down that road of growing up some knitting needles out of my Mom’s sowing basket.

With those “sticks” I started to bang on things. The couch cushion turned out to be my instrument of choice, deep sounds, cool to play along the TV and radio.

Later that “setup” was upgraded to a home-made drumkit of old washing powder drums, which I would build around me and couldn’t stop banging on. Picturing me already on stage playing with a band. I must have been around 9 or 10 years old then…

My first single Drum (a 13” Tomtom I believe) was the next upgrade, followed by my first drum set at the age of 12.

Since that day I never stopped playing to this very day, still loving it!

Photo by Michael Spanuth

Studying Hard

I finished college with a major in music and decided to take the next step: studying music.

My first stop was Vienna, Austria where the AIM (American Institute of Music) opened up. This was a division of the PIT in Los Angeles. Jeff Boudreaux from New Orleans was my teacher there.

Then, after being on tour for 2 and a half years with friends that I met in Vienna, I continued to study music in Bremen, Germany where Charly Antolini & Helge Zumdieck where my teachers.

In Bremen I got to know Jeff Hamilton, who was part of three workshops with his trio.

I was so fascinated by his playing and personality that I asked him to take lessons with him in Los Angeles. He agreed and so I could have this deep inspiring experience to spend a few weeks in L.A. and taking lessons from him. This turned out to be the deepest experience that I had so far.

Thank’s Jeff!