My initial connection to drumming stems from a childhood permeated by music. With both parents being professional musicians, music couldn't be avoided in the Curry household. I was exposed to a wide variety of musical genres, sang in the church choir, and had a few years of uninspiring guitar lessons. But nothing really hooked my imagination until I started hearing my older brother's rock albums in the mid 70s. As a child, I'd known the awesome power of being surrounded by a thundering symphony orchestra or cathedral organ in full swell, but as a teen I found a new power in the primal, raw energy of progressive rock. This didn't frighten me; it amplified me.

In my basement room - stereo blasting Jethro Tull or King Crimson - I would sit by the edge of my bed and flail mercilessly away on the mattress with a pair of drum sticks. While these sessions were more about venting adolescent angst, they did teach me how to listen to complex rhythms and match what I heard, how to start and stop in time, how to hold down a groove and how to fill in the gaps with speedy riffs. All the pieces for real drumming were there in their unpolished form.

In college, I had numerous drummer friends, so I was always involved in conversations about snares and triplet fills and double stroke rolls. I was playing bass guitar at this point - a close ally of the drums - but didn't consider myself in the same class as all my drummer friends. It was with these same friends that I had my first taste of what a drum circle could be like. We would sit around with a random collection of tupperware containers or salad bowls or cardboard boxes, and together we would improvise rhythms on these found objects. The sheer enjoyment of such spontaneous creations stuck with me.

After college, I began casting about for new social, spiritual and musical activities, and by chance ended up at a drum circle at Earth Spirits, a New Age shop in Sturbridge. The experiences that I had at Earth Spirits were very influential in shaping my concept of how a drum circle should operate.

The owner of Earth Spirits eventually discontinued the drum circles in her shop. I was unaware of how many other drum circles I might have found elsewhere if I'd cared to look, so instead I went "circle-less" for a time. But my interest was rekindled after I facilitated my first-ever lay-lead Sunday service at the Milford UU church, a service that centered on drumming as a spiritual practice. The response was very favorable, and several people from the congregation encouraged me to start a regular drum circle in the church.

In the ten years since then, I have lead at least one or two drum circles every single month, often many more. I have witnessed the growth of the original Milford circle from 3 participants to as many as 50, and the DFOA mailing list boasts nearly 400 names. I have lead many drumming-related worship services in various churches across New England. I have facilitated hundreds of drumming events and workshops in youth centers, community colleges, public schools and retreat centers. I've been interviewed by several local papers, including the Boston Globe, and have appeared on the RI public access TV network. I am a member of the national Drum Circle Facilitators Guild. For five years, I have been the co-organizer for the Eastern Massachusetts Rhythm Festival. Most recently, I have been offering an introductory course on drumming and percussion at the Assabet School in Marlborough MA.