Scottish 16 Year old named the UK’s Young Drummer of the Year.

Drummer Euan Leslie beat 400 other contenders from around the country to win the title of Drummer of the Year. Euan was born on the 18th of December 1998. It all started when his grandad bought him his first drum kit at the age of 7. Since then he hasn’t stopped tapping. After a year or so after that his mum and dad saw potential and tried to cultivate it by getting him in the church band which gave him alot of experience playing in a group.

Euan currently plays with Strathclyde Jazz Orchestra, The Cosmonaut Arkestra (8 piece funk ensemble) , A Percussion Ensemble, The Fourth Crew (4 piece fusion band), A Jazz Quartet, 70s Backing Band and Gospel recording artist Ahmed Conteh and some other projects going. 2012 saw Euan play down at the BBC Cheltenham Jazz Festival were he got mentioned by Julian Joseph for Musicality, Communication and Technique and also got to sit in on the drum chair with Jazz trumpeter Abram Wilson at the age of 12 who sadly passed a week after meeting him.

He trys to keep busy doing regular gigs in and around Scotland including the Lockerbie Jazz festival which he played along side Darius Brubeck (Dave Brubeck’s son) and Evan Christopher, Comlongdon Rocks Music Festival and more recently Youth Beatz which he played alongside Professor Green and Amelia Lily to an audience of 12,000 people. He also got the opportunity to play at the well known 606 club in Chelsea in September 2012. Euan has also played at places such as the London Jazz Festival and recorded in places like The Premises in East London (Check gigs for more detailed info on them).  2013 Was also the year Euan got into The National Youth Jazz Orchestra Of Scotland at age 14. The band will be going on tour Summer 2014.

Euan is a UK Young Drummer Of The Year Finalist for 2013 (age 13) and 2014 (age 14) which has brought him alot of recognition. The top 10 are picked from over 500 video tape entries across the UK. He is also a semi finalist of BBC4’s Young Jazz Musician Of The Year 2014 age 14 and the Young Scottish Jazz Musician 2013 at age 13.

Alongside this Euan has also had experience in the theatre playing drums in the band pit for the show “Queen Of Hearts” which has music from the likes of High school Musical and Lion King. Euan’s ambitions for the future are to get into a good music school and study with topmasters to make great music.