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The Gathering of Drummers (Slet bubeniku) This new project was for the first time introduced in Czech Republic in 2002. Thanks to a huge success and positive reactions of both audience and music press The Gathering of Drummers takes place regularly every year. The mission of The Gathering of drummers is to create a new original multi-genre music project .. Well-known inventive drummers from almost all over the world are invited to participate in one-week workshop to create unique and specific art form – a composition of cca 10 drum sets and percussive instruments, eventuell added melodic instruments. The project will be afterwords presented live. The project is truly unique – such number of drummers of various music styles have probably never met in one common project. Organisers promote new, innovative art - to use contrasts between different music genres (jazz-classical music-world music-alternative music-ambient etc., and between nature musician feeling based on their roots)…allow creative atmosphere during the workshop and present it at the performing stage.

About the artists

Pavel Fajt - drums, dholl, voice Since the mid-'80s, Pavel Fajt (pronounced "fight") has been one of the most prominent musicians on the Czech alternative rock scene. As a drummer, a composer, and a bandleader, he has been instrumental in the shaping of a distinctive Czech rock identity. Back home, he first got noticed among the seminal group Dunaj. Internationally, he is best-known for his duo with Iva Bittová and for his appearance in the film and on the soundtrack Step Across the Border about avant-garde guitar hero Fred Frith. Born the day after Christmas in 1957 in Brno (also Bittová's hometown), Fajt got seriously involved with music rather late. He began to work as a composer of music for dance and theater in the early '80s and started as a professional musician in 1983 in groups that left little or no trace (Nucleus, Manana, Jeste Jsme Se Nedohodli). 1983 was also the year he co-founded Dunaj, promising to quickly become the mother of a new rock scene in Czechoslovakia, its siblings populating the catalog of the record label Indies. In 1985, Fajt began to collaborate with singer/violinist Iva Bittová. This project yielded a couple of critically acclaimed albums in the late '80s; took the duo around Europe, America, and Japan; and attracted the attention of Fred Frith, who performed with both of them at the 1988 MIMI Festival (France) (ex-Etron Fou Leloublan guitarist Ferdinand Richard would do the same a year later). The first half of the 1990s saw a number of projects filling Fajt's schedule: the Joseph Boys with ex-Dunaj guitarist Vladimír Václavek, the Vogel Europas, Macaronic Sines with Anna Homler and Geert Waegeman, and duos with Extempore leader Mikolás Chadima and drummer Jim Meneses (the Stickmen, Zero Pop, Palinckx). Fajt founded his own group, Pluto, in 1995, recruiting singer Václav Bartos, guitarist Petr Zavadil, and bassist Tomás Fröhlich, who would remain a trusty sideman in the drummer's other projects. Pluto brought out the best in Fajt, channeling his heavy yet subtle playing style in energy driven songs that were generally accessible yet always on the verge of something avant-garde. The group's two CDs — Pavel Fajt & Pluto, 1996, and Tri, 1998 — stand among his best work. In the late '90s, he participated in the Danubians with Amy Denio and members of the Hungarian avant-rock group Kampec Dolores. He released his first solo album, Drum Trek, in 2001. (by allmusic.com) www.fajt.cz

Alan Vitous - Log drums, bougarabou,darbuka, djembe, kalimba The multi-instrumentalist Alan Vitous was born in Prague where he graduated from the conservatory in percussion. In the 1960s he began his career as a child prodigy in the Junior Trio with his brother - contrabassist Miroslav Vitou-- - and keyboard player Jan Hammer. During years of performing with the most prominent Czech and European jazz artists he gradually gained a reputation as an excellent improviser. He has collaborated both with dancers (from 1985 to 1990 with Min Tanaka of Japan) and with theatrical artists - from 1989 to the present in the theatrical project 'Vizita' (Hospital Visitation) with actor Jaroslav Du--ek. 

Milos Vacik, timbales, djembé, berimbau, caxixi, pandeiro, agogo-bells, repeniq , apito, brasilian and cuban percussions, voice. Drummer and percussionist, composer, studio musician, artist. Utilizes over two hundred instruments from all over the world. Specializes in music and instruments from Cuba, Brazil and west Africa. Milos has studied with masters from Cuba, Africa and the USA. He combines a custom-built drum set with a range of ethnic instruments, bells, cans, percussions and his voice. More: http://www.tamtam-orchestra.cz/bio.html

 David Koller is a Czech singer, drummer, guitarist, lyricist, composer and producer. In 1981 he was one of the founders of a music group Jasna paka, he also played in 5P, SPS, Zentour or Blue Effect. Between the years 1988 and 2005 he was a frontman of his own group Lucie. In 1993 he had published his first solo album. He had composed music for films Amerika and Posledni presun. A few years ago he had left the group Lucie and established a new group called Kollerband. He was also touring with another czech rock band - Chinaski