Kabir Adhiya-Kumar is a 24-year-old drummer and producer from NYC. Since picking up the sticks at 8 years old, his unparalleled creativity has lead him to become one of New York's' most versatile and in-demand musicians.
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At the age of 11, Kabir was accepted into Juilliard's Music Advancement Program, a 4 year initiative that aims to give opportunities to those underrepresented in Classical Music. While this was expansive and introduced him to European Classical Percussion, Kabir sought out more freedom, and this grew to a strong refocusing on the drum set. In 2022, he graduated from Boston's New England Conservatory, where he was mentored by Jazz greats like Billy Hart and Nasheet Waits.
Since moving back home, he's performed and/or recorded with over 50 different bands and artists across multiple genres of music. He's worked with up and coming rappers, such as Abe The Kid, Blkchrist, Atmoney, Stan Lee, and Merkeba. In the Pop/Rock world, he's played drums for Tetchy, Wally, Buffchick, Zoe Ko, India Lake, J. Solomon, Hairpin, Deandre Sevon, Malik English, and others. He's also worked as musical director and drummer for more production/electronic based artists like MKULTRA, Khal!l, min.a, and Poptropicaslutz, setting up and running live tracks and/or auto-tune for all of their sets, whether it be on tour, or one -offs. Most notably, Kabir has performed with musical artists like Isa Crespo, Rahul Carlberg, and Skyler Hill. The four play in an avant-pop band called Toso Toso; in 2023 they signed to Leaving Records, with their debut LP is anticipated in 2025. The group's first two singles were described as "A bold and explosive exercise in experimentalism" by Electronic Sound Magazine, and were featured multiple times on BBC's Radio One. Ariel Vera, Vi Reiss, Lemuel Marc, and Miranda Agnew, and Kabir make up ETM, another free improvised music group, whose debut record was released in 2024, via Tidebloom records. Others in NYC's music scene Kabir has performed with include Declan Sheehy-Moss, Tim Watson, Judette Ellitson, Emmanuel Michael, Miles Kenigstein, and Jonathan Paik to name a few. This has led to performances at venues such as The Battery Dance Festival (NYC), to Philamoca (Philly), all the way to The Kennedy Center (Washington D.C), where he was invited to participate in 'Almanac', a residency at that aimed to explore the significance of Black American Art. Kabir has also dabbled in musical theatre work, having accompanied Broadway artists during cabaret performances at venues like The Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, 54 Below, and Green Room 42.
During the pandemic, Kabir taught himself Ableton and dove deep into it. As a producer, he has slowly built a name for himself within NYC's underground hip-hop scene under the name 'drinkabir'; 2024 collaborative song "War" with artist Abe the Kid was described as "...a simultaneously bright yet haunting soundscape demanding multiple listens" by Atwood Magazine.
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