Kassandra Kocoshis was raised in a musical family and has been playing percussion since she was eleven years old. She received her Bachelors of Music in Percussion Performance from DePaul University and her Masters of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts.

In 2004, Kassandra found flamenco. She studied with flamenco percussionist Francisco Orozco Fernandez "El Yiyi” and put in countless hours of studying and
playing to master this intricate art form. Kassandra has performed with many flamenco artists including Carmela Greco, Jose Cortes "Pansequito Hijo", Alfonso Cid, Paco Fonta, Antonio Gabarri Jiménez, dancers Cristian Lozano and Paloma Gomez, Diego Alonso, Chiara Mangiameli, Carlo Basile, Las Guitarras de España, Ensemble Español, and many others. In 2006 she was featured as one of six flamenco women in the Chicago Tribune’s article “Flamenco: A Way of life.”

During her time in Chicago, Kassandra performed with the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra, the Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Concertante di Chicago, Sacred Winds Ensemble, and with hip-hop artist, Kanye West. Kassandra also contributed as a guest artist on Las Guitarras de España’s albums, “Cuatro por Arriba” and “Tantas Cosas” and as the percussionist in Wendy Clinard’s production of “Jondo Portraits.” She is also a founding member of the flamenco trio “Idilio” with Diego Alonso and Chiara Mangiameli who released their self-titled debut album in 2009.

In 2010, Kassandra relocated to Los Angeles to earn her MFA in World Percussion at California Institute of the Arts under the tutelage of Randy Gloss. Since moving to LA she has performed with Carlos Vives, Vahagni, Mickey Hart, Shaherah White, Adam del Monte, Brazilian percussion master Guello, British percussionist Pete Lockett, Persian musician Hamed Nikpay, Persian percussion master Houman Pourmehdi, Uzbeki percussionist Abbos Kosimov, and guitarist Miroslav Tadic. In 2011, she was the percussionist for Theater Mitu’s “Chaos”; the first professional theater production to be conceived, produced and performed in the city of Abu Dhabi. She has also performed with indie rock group, Young the Giant and at the South by Southwest Music Festival with Las Guitarras de España. Currently she is freelancing in Los Angeles playing with pop, R&B, soul, new music, rock and flamenco groups around the city. She is a current member of California soul band “Beat Mosaic" and the all female salsa band "Las Chikas"

As a recording artist, Kassandra has recording artists from an array of different genres including Meghan Trainor, Vahagni, Soul Scratch, Beat Mosaic, and many other artists. Kassandra has recently contributed as a musician to the Grammy nominated album "Love Language" by South African flutist, Wouter Kellerman.

Kassandra can be seen in Postmodern Jukebox's video "The Prayer" featuring American Idol stars Pia Toscano and Stefano Langone.

Kassandra is an LP and Amplified Timber artist.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to ex-cohost and friend of the show, Marcos Torres!

Happy Birthday to Scott Kettner! When Scott Kettner looks at a map, he sees a direct line that connects the rivers of northeastern Brazil to the parishes of New Orleans and the streets of Brooklyn. A master percussionist, bandleader, producer and songwriter, Kettner is the guiding force behind Nation Beat, a band whose teeming, vibrant rhythms find common ground in the primal maracatu rhythm of Brazil’s northeastern region, the Big Easy’s funky, hypnotic second-line and strolling Mardi Gras Indians, and the unfettered freedom of big-city downtown jazz.

For Kettner, the discovery of maracatu was a life-changing experience. The great jazz drummer Billy Hart, who served as Kettner’s instructor at New York’s New School University, first informed him of the mysterious music. “He was turning me on to African music from different regions,” says Kettner, “and we started getting into Afro-Cuban rhythms and Brazilian rhythms. After a couple of years studying samba and bossa nova, I asked him, ‘Are there any other rhythms from Brazil that I should be learning?’ He said, ‘Yeah, man, there’s this music called maracatu!’ I pointed to his drumset and said, ‘Show it to me,’ and he said, ‘I don’t know how to play it! I just know it’s a badass rhythm and you have to go learn it, then come back and teach it to me.’”

Intrigued, Kettner began asking Brazilian musicians based in New York how he could learn about maracatu. Even most of them knew nothing of it. The only thing to do, Kettner reasoned, was to go to Brazil and find maracatu. Upon graduating in 2000, he spent a year living in the country, based primarily in the northeastern city of Recife, living in a favela, studying maracatu and other, even more obscure Brazilian rhythms with his new mentor, Jorge Martins. Upon his return to the USA, Kettner implemented maracatu in NYC and began performing and conducting workshops throughout the country.

As a side-man, Scott Kettner has performed and/or recorded with Willie Nelson, Cyro Baptista, Stanton Moore and Galactic, Frank London, The Klezmatics, Cascabulho, Vieux Farka Toure, Maracatu Nação Estrela Brilhante and many more.

His new book entitled “Maracatu for Drumset and Percussion” is now available by Hal Leonard Publishing. This is the first in-depth percussion book about the rich culture and music of Maracatu de Baque Virado from Brazil, with photos, history, recordings and an instructional CD-Rom.

Scott is also a recent recipient of a prestigious NEA (National Endowment for The Arts) award for his project entitled “A Tale of Two Nations” which brought together his group Nation Beat and the traditional maracatu group from Recife, Brazil Estrela Brilhante. The grant helped fund a tour that had it’s world debut at Lincoln Center Out of Doors in the summer of 2013. This tour was historic in that it was the first time that a traditional maracatu group from Brazil had ever performed in the United States.

Gig Alerts

The Ground Up Music Festival returns to Miami this February 3-5th.

Educational Spotlight

You can submit to perform/present at PASIC until Jan 23rd.

Virtual PASIC is available until December 31st, 2022.

Shout-out to the PAS (Percussive Arts Society) new members on the Board of Directors and Board of Advisors.

Iconic Recording

The iconic recording was chosen by Kassandra. It is her former teacher (and friend of the show), Randy Gloss, from his new album, ‘The Ayes Have It, Vol 2.’ The song Damon chose is “National Geographic Oro”

Music News

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Taylor Swift's highly-anticipated "The Eras" tour has been controversial over the past few weeks due to the high volume of people who attempted to buy passes. More recently, the US government has been involved and those who will try to re-sell the tickets might end up in big trouble. -Article

Last week, following the much-publicized Eras Tour ticketing fiasco, Ticketmaster gave certain shortchanged Swifties a second chance to nab passes. Now, it’s come to light that the Live Nation subsidiary is transferring the 170,000 or so tickets at hand to its seldom-discussed Ticketstoday platform. -Article

About one month after a multitude of Taylor Swift diehards were unable to purchase Eras Tour tickets via Ticketmaster, the Live Nation subsidiary is giving select fans a second chance to buy passes. -Article

Mexico’s president makes a public request asking Bad Bunny to perform a free concert in Mexico City following the Ticketmaster scandal that left thousands with unusable tickets. -Article

Voting is now open for the 2022 Drumeo Awards. -Vote Here!

Kassandra Kocoshis Interview

The music leading into the interview was from this video below!

Shout-out to Mona Tavakoli for bringing up the Ladies Roundtable podcast episode over on the Working Drummer Podcast with Zach Albetta.

Kassandra studied at Ball State University when she was in high school.

Shout-out to Dr. Erwin Mueller.

Kassandra talks about her new job teaching music at the L.A. City College.

Kassandra taught percussion classes at the L.A. Women’s Prison with friend of the show Nikki Campbell.

Kassandra talks about how she got the job teaching at the prison and also how she got introduced to opportunities at L.A. City College.

Shout-out to Christine Park.

Kassandra talks about what was involved in the process of her applying for the teaching job at L.A. City College.

Kassandra explains what the definition is for a tenure track position.

Kassandra talks about other things L.A. City College offers.

Kassandra talks about her curriculum.

Damon mentions getting Air Tags to keep track of your gear/luggage.

Kassandra talks about stress dreams.

Kassandra mentions checking out people like Israel Suarez “El Piraña” or (friend of the show) Diego Alvarez “El Negro” to get an entry point into Flamenco. She also mentions checking out traveling groups passing through the area.

She mentions some great (Flamenco) guitarists to listen to.

This is the second Flamenco movie.

Kassandra mentions the study abroad program at her school.

Kassandra is very organized and enjoys planning travel. She was the assistant for Gustavo Dudamel of the L.A. Philharmonic.

Damon brings up the app Master Tour.

Kassandra picks out the iconic recording.

Kassandra answers the rapid fire three questions. She shouts out her Cooperman frame drum. Shout-out to Latin Percussion and Jerry Zacarias. If Kassandra went back to school she would study drumset more and also study abroad.

Kassandra suggests people in school look into what options they have they can take advantage of.

Both Kassandra and Damon LOVE their rock-n-roller carts!

Shout-out to friend of the show, Dr. Andy Bliss and his wife Erin Bliss.

Kassandra talks about future plans. Damon asks about the cabin in Montana.

Kassandra uses Latin Percussion, and Amplified Timber.

You can follow Kassandra on her Website, Twitter, and Instagram.

The song leading out of the interview is “Love Carries” by Beat Mosaic.