Dan Pugach Jazz Trio November 6, 2010

The Dan Pugach Trio is comprised of an international cast of top-level musicians from New York. This group of artists have worked together in various capacities for the past few years and is now focused on performing their original compositions as well as inventive arrangements of the standard jazz repertoire.

Daniel Meron – Piano

Craig Akin – Acoustic Bass

Dan Pugach – Drums

Dan was Born in Raanana, Israel in 1983 and at age 11 began playing the drums. He studied with the finest drum instructors Israel has to offer.

During his musical studies at Metro-West High School he continued to study jazz and in 1999 won the first prize in the Israeli Jazz Performance Competition with his sextet.

Right after he graduated from high school he joined the army, where he was selected to serve as an the official drummer for the Air Force Band. During those 3 years in the army Dan managed to complete a full program at the Rimon School of Jazz, majoring in jazz performance.

In 2003, he won the Rimon Jazz Competition and was chosen to represent the school at the IASJ meeting in Freiburg, Germany. During his studies at Rimon Dan performed with International artists, such as, Airto Moreira and Frank Gambale.

In 2006, after four months of Portugues lessons, Dan traveled to Rio de Janeiro, Brasil and studied drumset and percussion with the leading samba musicians, such as Jorginho do Pandeiro, his son Celsinho Silva, Marcos Suzano, Marcio Bahia and Paulinho Braga.

Soon enough, Dan was awarded the Berklee World Scholarship Tour and moved to Boston to begin his studies at Berklee College of Music, majoring in jazz performance. There he studied with Hal Crook, Dave Santoro, Terri Lyne Carrington, Dave Samuels, George Garzone, and Joe Lovano.

Today Dan resides in Brooklyn, New York and is pursuing a career in music. He is a graduate student at the City College of New York, majoring in jazz performance. His recent activities include performances and recordings at venues such as, Blue Note Jazz Club, Zinc Bar, Red Sea Jazz Festival, New Orleans Jazz Festival, BeanTown Jazz Festival, just to name a few, as well as working towards a debut album.