Dio Santos

Hi Dio Santos here, I love playing and teaching drums and rhythm. My professional teaching experience goes back to 1997 when I was commissioned to design a curriculum for drum kit for a contemporary music school called Allenby Campus that was going to open in 1998. This was a brand new institute in Johannesburg, South Africa. The recognition I got from that and for the 14 years (1998-2011) of heading the drum department at this campus lead to more teaching offers from colleges and universities. These include: St.John's College from 2011 to 2024 in Houghton. Saheti, a private college in Bedforview from 2000 to 2005 and WITS (University of the Witwatersrand) university in Braamfontein from 2006 to 2008 and then from 2012 to 2024 all of these are located in Johannesburg. In the Tshwane area I taught at T.U.T (Tshwane University of Technology) from 2004 to 2014 and at Southdowns college from 2008 to 2024, all of the above are located in Gauteng, South Africa. I also taught privately from home since 1995.

I started playing drums at 17, self taught until I was about 23. I played with Rock bands and one of them -Lynx- went as far as getting a recording contract. Rock and Pop came very easy to me.

I became very interested in Jazz around the age of 24, this style was very challenging so I decided that on my own I had gone as far as I could...I began to take private lessons from various local teachers and by the age of 26 I got my first Jazz gig. I have since managed a very busy schedule with gigging an with teaching. In 1993 I enrolled at Musicians Institute in LA, USA and completed the PIT program with honors. Regular and on going gigs include: Big Band Jazz every Monday night at the Zoo Lake Bowling Club from 2010 to 2013, Piano Trio every Tuesday eve and Sunday lunch at Cnr. Café in Craighall Park from 2006 to 2012 and Every Friday and Saturday evenings at the Saxon Hotel in Sandhurst, Sandton from 2016 to 2020 (discontinued due to Covid) All of the above venues are in Gauteng, S. Africa.