About Brian

Brian O’Neill is a versatile award-winning multi-percussionist, drummer and composer based in Boston who has performed at The Montreal Jazz Festival, The Kennedy Center, and Carnegie Hall among others. A “percussion master and musical polymath” (Boston Phoenix), Brian performs regularly in a wide variety of musical contexts including jazz, classical, world music, and theatre. In the world of jazz and creative music, Brian leads the acclaimed triple ensemble Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica, which performs original global jazz and chamber music, intergalactic balkan surf jazz, and the lost space-age pop music of Juan Garcia Esquivel (“deliciously entertaining”—Wall Street Journal). Under his leadership, the Orchestrotica has toured internationally in Germany, Mexico, and Canada, and has won grants from NEFA and the South Arts Jazz Road Tours program. In the orchestral world, Brian is an active freelancer who has performed with Portland Symphony, Albany Symphony, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Arizona Opera among others. In addition to backing up The Who, Donna Summer, and Kristin Chenoweth on percussion, Brian is a regular theatre drummer and percussionist and has been a local musician for multiple national Broadway theater tours including Ain't Too Proud, Motown the Musical and Anastasia. Brian is also an original member of the klezmer-balkan group, Klezwoods and plays bodhran, frame drums, and cajon in the contemporary Irish group, Ishna. Follow Brian at crashandboom.com or on Instagram (@orchestrotica).

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