Philipp Fürstenau

Born in Wedel, Germany on September 26th, 2000 and grewing up in a music loving family and environment, Philipp Fürstenau started playing the drums at age five.

After using whisks and pans to accompany the Vienna Philharmonic’s legendary „New Years Concert“ in front of the TV, he switched to drumsticks and real drums, giving him the chance to finally imitate playing the well-know encore „Radetzky March“.

With getting his first drumset, it was a done deal. He started taking drumset lessons at age nine, proceeding some years and then decided to also study drumset (with jazz drummer Björn Lücker), classical percussion (with Lin Chen) and instrumental pedagogy (BA of Music degree).

While studying, Philipp always has been taking lessons with different players/teachers and wanted to select the best for developing his playing, thinking and career. These include for instance Holger Nell (Professor for Jazz drumset in Hamburg, Germany) and most famous his drummer idol David Garibaldi of Tower Of Power.

Philipp describes studying with Garibaldi as a dream come true and the best that could happen to his drum education.

Being influenced by many different genres of music such as Soul and Rock N‘ Roll, he feels most comfortable in playing Funk/R&B and Jazz Fusion and likes to establish his „own“ sound, shaped through listening to his favorite drummers.

Philipp is a founding member of Hamburg-based newcomer Funk band Elbreeze, releases include Show Solidarity (2021) and Take Your Time (2024).

He is regularly performing live and in the studio with his band and several other projects, reaching from R&B to Jazz and Latin music. Not only being a live and studio musician, Philipp enjoys teaching drums at renowned music schools, the Yamaha Music SchoolHamburg and the Hamburg Conservatory.

Through working close with the Yamaha Music Education department, he is, also giving drumset workshops for groups, as well as recording drum tutorials for the Yamaha Music School social media channels.