James Donnelly – Drummer

My name is James and I’m a Belfast-based drummer/percussionist. I’m friendly, professional, and easy to work with. I’ve been playing the drums since I was 11 years old and have years of history playing and gigging with many different groups of musicians, from orchestras to uni bands. I am a very flexible musician, able to play and compose for many different genres of music and can adjust and improvise to suit the need.

Bands that have influenced me include The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Tower of Power, and Frank Zappa. In particular John Bonham of Led Zeppelin is a massive influence on my drumming. If you need a sight-reading drummer who works with professionalism at a high standard, then you won’t be disappointed with me 🙂

-Le Freekz – Drummer (since October 2023)

Playing with Le Freekz involves being able to improvise and come up with interesting different funk-inspired drum beats. Professionalism and working well performing live with the other members of the band.

-The Rainbow Factory Theatre School – Pit Band Drummer (Summer 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)

Played a wide variety of music and different percussion pieces with this group. Musicals played include: ‘Sunshine on Leith’; ‘Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat’, ‘Grease’; and ‘Calamity Jane’ (Pictured below lol). Skills needed for this work includes precise time-keeping, quick sight-reading, volume control, and attentiveness to the musical director and their changes.

-Bar Gigging (since 2017)

Since 2017 I have been on and off with a number of different artists gigging in Belfast. This mostly consisted of playing percussion accompaniment for Irish traditional musicians but also includes experience drumming and playing acoustic traditional guitar live in for musicians.

-Several Orchestras and Brass Bands (2011-2019)

I’ve been playing organised music ever since I started to play music. Throughout my school years, I have played with a number of different Orchestras in the City of Belfast School of Music, including their youth orchestra as a percussionist, the Big Band as drummer, and as percussionist for the Concert Band. I have also been a part of the Leeds Conservatoire Orchestra as a percussionist. My time in orchestras and concert bands has included tours in the west coast of the USA and a tour of Czechia in which we performed in many different venues playing a wide range of music

-Belvoir Players Theatre Band (2024)

I have played in a production of Peter Pan in September and also played a Night at the Theatre, playing a number of show tunes and musical theatre songs.

-Leeds Conservatoire (2018-2019)

Studied Jazz Musicianship in my first year of university. This gave me a good base of jazz knowledge and music theory.

-BIMM Dublin (2019-2022)

Qualified last year in Commercial Modern Music. This degree helped me to develop my professional standards and practice. During this course I was able to challenge myself and grow as a musician and develop new skills such as recording technique and etiquette. During my time in BIMM I got a lot of experience gigging and playing with different musicians on my course.