Virgil Donati

Virgil Donati is a drummer currently playing in the band Planet X, though he has many side projects.

He is considered to be one of most skilled drummers in the world and is a master of polyrhythms and odd time signatures. He has achieved incredible speed and accuracy at drumming, and is perhaps most well known for his fast double kicking on the bass drum. He holds the drum sticks in the traditional style and is also quite proficient at the keyboard.

Virgil was born in Melbourne, Australia and grew up there, though these days he spends most of his time in the United States playing with a number of different bands. He got his first drumset at the age of three! He played with his fathers band until he was 6 and then started taking classes when he was 7. One of his major influences was Ian Paice of Deep Purple.

Virgil was voted the number 1 clinician of the year (2004) by the readers of the popular drummer mag Modern Drummer.

He has released two studio albums with Planet X; Universe (2000) and Moonbabies (2002), and one live album, Live From Oz (2001).

Other bands/projects that Virgil has been involved with are:

• On the Virg
• Steve Vai
• Ring of Fire
• Tribal Tech
• Derek Sherinian
• Southern Sons

plus more...