Meinl Cymbal Artist and 2009 Guitar Center Drum-Off National Champion Ramon Sampson hosted a clinic at Guitar Center in Memphis, TN earlier this week.

Check out the awesome videos posted online. More to come.

Meinl Cymbals is please to welcome Michael Dean of England's NEW MODEL ARMY to its family of cymbal artists. Michael's cymbal set-up consists of Byzance traditional, and Mb10 series cymbals.

Check out Michael's artist profile and the New Model Army's website.

Meinl Cymbals is pleased to welcome the one-and-only Onkel to its family of cymbal artists. Onkel is the drummer of Germany's leading Reggea - HipHop band Ohrbooten. Onkel's unparalleled and individual style in combining drums, percussion, and electronics into one hybrid setup is unique and defines Ohrbooten's sound.

Onkel is using Meinl Byzance, Generation X and Candela series cymbals for creating his incomparable reggea beats and sounds.

Catch the band and Onkel live on tour in Germany right now.

Meinl Cymbal artist and 2009 Guitar Center Drum-Off Champion Ramon Sampson will host a clinic at Guitar Center in Memphis, Tennessee at 7PM on Tuesday, April 27.

After months of intense competition with the nation's best undiscovered drummers, 19 year-old Ramon Sampson claimed the title of 2009 Drum-Off Champion. Next Tuesday he'll come home to Memphis, TN, returning to friends, family, and his band for a special night of music and dialogue. 

Ramon will share insights from his Drum-Off experience and will demonstrate his extraordinary, title-winning techniques in a live band performance.

Also, Meinl Cymbals will be on display for checking out and purchase. Don't miss this chance to see Ramon Sampson and Meinl Cymbals in one awesome night!!!

Guitar Center Memphis - 8000 US HIGHWAY 64, MEMPHIS, TN

Meinl Cymbals is pleased to welcome the mighty John Longstreth to its family of cymbal artists. John is currently best known for his death-defying drumming behind the progressive extreme metal masters Origin.

John's unparalleled technique and masterful sense of musicality place him in the upper echelon of today's metal drummers. However, it's these same attributes that allow John to switch from metal to jazz or blues at a moment's notice.

John made the switch to Meinl Cymbals because he knew he couldn't go any longer without Meinl's original and unique cymbal sounds combined with the awesome array of sonic options to choose from. Furthermore, John knew that he would be going with a company that's committed to making sure that each and every artist on its roster is artistically fulfilled in the sense of having cymbals and service that are both second to none. 

Welcome John!

Meinl cymbals is pleased to announce their participation at the 2010 London Drum Show which will take place on September 4th - 5th at the Olympia Centre in London. The company will be exhibiting their latest cymbal news at booth no. C4 and will present Meinl artist Benny Greb's performance at the show.

Benny Greb Clinic Tour dates have been confirmed for his late April/early May 2010 USA clinic run.

Here they are - 

Tuesday, April 27 - Donn Bennett Drum Studio - Bellevue, WA

Wednesday, April 28 - Sam Ash Music Drum Shop - Hollywood, CA

Thursday, April 29 - Hubbard's Music and More - Las Cruces, NM

Friday, April 30 - Ellis Drum Shop - St. Paul, MN

Saturday, May 01 - Huber and Breese Music - Fraser, MI

Sunday, May 02 - Sam Ash Music - Buffalo Grove, IL

Monday, May 03 - C.A. House Music - St. Clairsville, OH

Tuesday, May 04 - Sam Ash Music - Carle Place, NY

Wednesday, May 05 - Sam Ash Music - Springfield, NJ

Thursday, May 06 - Sam Ash Music - King of Prussia, PA

Sunday, May 09 - Seminole Music, Seminole, FL

***Please check with each dealer to confirm exact times for Benny's clinics.***

Tomas Svensson, drummer of the sensational rockabilly band The Baseballs from Berlin, is now playing Meinl cymbals. The band is currently on tour promoting their latest releast Strike. Tomas plays Meinl Byzance Jazz and Traditional Series exclusively.

Click here for more information on Tomas and The Baseballs.

Meinl cymbals is proud to welcome Martin Potti Potthoff of the German Elektro Rock Band UNHEILIG to their list of endorsing artists. The band's new album "Grosse Freiheit" has hit the charts in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Unheilig are currently on a huge sold-out tour through Germany promoting their new release.

Martin plays Soundcaster Custom series cymbals.

UNHEILIG

French drummer Damien Schmitt has been added to the line-up for the 2010 Meinl Drum Festival. Damien stays busy playing with Jean-Luc Ponty and Alain Caron live as well as in the studio. In 2009, Damien performed at the Montreal Drum Festival in Canada where he left a huge impression on the crowd as well as his peers who performed at the festival. As the co-headliner of the 2010 Meinl Drum Festival, Damien will make his debut on the German drum scene.

Here's a very impressive video of him playing with Alain Caron (bass) and Jean Marie Ecay (guitar) at the 2009 drum addict festival.

Tickets and more info are on meinldrumfestival.com

Meinl Cymbal artist Jeff Gilbert and his band Kutless are fairly unstoppable right now. Since releasing their latest record, "It Is Well - A Worship Album," Jeff and Kutless have been riding high at the top of the Christian record charts.

Here's an update straight from Jeff.

"I hope this letter finds you well. I wanted to give my drum family an update on what is going on with Kutless. Our single "What Faith Can Do" has been dominating our market. Eight straight weeks at number one on the Adult Contemporary chart and the number one song on Christian radio. Since its release it has been number one across four different networks accumulating about 27 weeks! Our current tour is called the "It Is Well" tour, beginning April 8th, going until May 8th. You can get more info at Kutless.com. Thank you so very much for your continued support in my career, you will never know how appreciative I am."

Meinl Cymbal artist Aaron Gillespie and his band Underoath are done touring...for a little while...

While the band has some down time on their hands from their usual relentless schedule, they'll spend some time writing their next album.

The normal thing to do would be to get a little R and R, but for Aaron that just won't do. He's going to dive into the unknown and hold residency at All Pro Percussion in Tampa, Florida, where during the months of April and May, he'll give private drum lessons for anyone that's interested.

Spots are filling up quickly, so don't miss your chance to have some one on one time with one of the more unconventional drummers out there, who has already inspired a legion of up and coming bashers.

To get more information, call 813.341.3786.

Meinl Cymbals welcomes Matt Halpern of Periphery to its family of cymbal artists.

Matt drums for the Bethesda, Maryland-based band Periphery...and wow, can these guys play! With an emphasis on blending good song-writing with awe-inspiring technical prowess, Periphery has formed a steadily growing legion of fans before their debut album has even hit the shelves. With their first audio offering to drop on April 20 via the heavy hit-makers Sumerian Records, some major anticipation is building for what promises to be a big deal for innovative, heavy, progressive music in 2010.

Don't miss Matt and Periphery out on tour with Fear Factory and fellow Meinl Cymbal artist Art Cruz and Winds of Plague.

A few days after the international Musikmesse in Frankfurt ended, Silvio Tonelli of Meinl's Brazilian distributor Prime Music, and the publisher of the Brazilian Musica & Mercado Magazine Daniel Neves, visited the Meinl cymbal headquarter in Gutenstetten, Germany. During their visit, both Silvio and Daniel got an insight on the company's marketing approach as well as the manufacturing of Meinl cymbals. A detail company report will be released in one of the next issues of Musica & Mercado magazine.

Pictured from left to right are Uwe Becker (Meinl Export Manager), Silvio Tonelli (Prime Music Brazil), Norbert Saemann (Meinl International Artist Relations Manager), and Daniel Neves (Publisher of Musica & Mercado Magazine).