Chuck Cogliandro is a drummer, teacher, healing practitioner and Director of Kumandi Drums & Healing. Since 1992, Chuck’s path has included bringing people together in the shared joy of West African drumming.  He is a graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing and is completing his second year of studies in Family Constellations work with Peter and Jamy Faust.

“Drumming brings so much joy. It gets people out of their minds and out of their anxieties – out of the mental level of worrying. It raises their energetic level of vibration into the spiritual level. That’s where healing comes through the music and the drums.” ~Chuck Cogliandro

Listen to Chuck’s Art as Worship interview on Empower Radio.

Chuck annually hosts and organizes the Kumandi African Drum & Dance Camp near Asheville.  He has directed performing community and professional drumming groups, helped organize and performed with the 100-member drum tribe in the Opening Ceremonies of the Atlanta Olympic Games, and has made CD, commercial and soundtrack recordings.

Chuck’s company name, Kumandi, is from the Malinke language spoken in West Africa. He says, “Kumandi means to call or to invite or to sound. So that’s the purpose of the drums – to call people together and to invite them to make sound.” Chuck adds, “Drumming is powerful. It creates vibration that affects you on all levels. On the physical level, your body feels the music and the vibration coming from the drum. Your spirit is touched from the people creating this vibration collectively. Especially with African drumming, drumming is used to bring the community together to celebrate.” 

His longing is to co-create communities for transformation, using expressive elements of drumming, music, voice and movement. Chuck is also an enrichment instructor at Atlanta’s Orion School, drumming with children diagnosed with autism and ADHD.

Find out more about Chuck at www.Kumandi.com.

Listen each Wednesday at 9am Eastern on Empower Radio to hear another artist’s story. Share your art and your comments on the Art as Worship Facebook page. Namaste!