With twenty albums, a Grammy Award, an immense international following and the deep respect of his peers, Draghici, the world's preeminent pan flutist, is emerging as a unique musical visionary. Moving effortlessly between world, jazz and gypsy music, he combines and redefines them all in utterly incomparable ways.
Born in Bucharest, Romania, to a family whose distinguished musical heritage dates back at least seven generations, Draghici was dabbling in an array of instruments by the age of three. At ten, he settled on the pan flute. By fifteen, he was already a renowned prodigy in Romania, performing and recording with the Country's National Radio Symphony Orchestra and winning five consecutive Gold Medal Awards at the National Festival of Romania.
When life in the communist regime began to take its toll, Draghici, eighteen at the time, defected Romania and walked for days and nights through the mountains of Yugoslavia and around hostile border checkpoints, all the way to Greece.
For the first year, he was busking in the streets of Athens playing music for money and barely getting by, before landing a nightclub gig playing keyboards.
In Athens, he attended the Philipo Nakas Conservatory of music and, after years of struggling, Draghici landed a recording contract that won him acclaim in Europe.
He auditioned for the prestigious Berklee College of Music (Boston, USA) performing jazz on the pan flute. He was awarded a full scholarship and so, Damian was off to the United States, where he finished a four-year program in just over a year, earning his degree Magna cum Laude in jazz performance, with a bachelor degree in pan flute.
It was at Berklee where he met up and started working with the greatest jazz musicians of the international scene such as Dave Liebman, Vinnie Colaiuta, Dave Weckl, Grammy winner Paul Winter, Richard Bona, Abraham Laboriel, Nathan East, Steve Lukhater.
In 2001, he held one of the biggest concerts in Romania “Damian’s Fire”, with 150 musicians of London Symphony Orchestra, gathering a public of 72,000 people (a one-time-only event in Romania). Damian's Fire, represented a premiere in Romania from the technical endowment's point of view. The super-production was recorded by the American TV network PBS.
The show was broadcasted in America in the spring of 2002, on 364 channels, being watched of over 270 millions of Americans and approximately 500 millions of viewers all around the world
In 2004, Draghici joined as one of the headliners, James Brown, Joe Cocker, reggae star Shaggy, Cyndi Lauper, Zucherro, Gypsy Kings, Roger Hodgson (Supertramp) and The Pointer Sisters for one of Europe's most esteemed musical events, the Night of the Proms tour.
In 2006, Draghici decided to come back to his roots in Romania, by founding a new group with “his gypsy brothers” as he likes to call them. One of the purposes of “Damian & Brothers – Filarmonika Rromanes” is to change the international perception and the stereotypes over Roma (Gypsy) minority through their music. The impact and the huge popularity achieved are a confirmation of their common effort.
In 2010 he return to his beloved instrument the panflute and start working on a new project “The Bebop Pan Piper”, a tribute recording to all the great jazz giants that had an impact and influence Damian’s music life. The guest artist on the album are: Michel Camilo, Frank Gambale, Chris Botti, Bob Mintzer, Russel Ferante, Vinnie Coliauta, Dave Weckl, Luis Conte, Paulinho DaCosta, Allen Broadbent, Alex Acuna, Luciana Souza.
Other collaborators have included film composers Hans Zimmer and Louis Bacalov, music producers David Foster, Richard Marx, Compay Segundo of the Buena Vista Social, The London Symphony Orchestra and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
He is devoted to the Roma situation in Romania and Europe and, because of this, he initiated the awareness campaign “I am gypsy, I am proud” which has still a great impact.
Damian Draghici
Pan flute musician
Damian and Brothers Band