Frank Alongi has been creating music in Chicago since 1999. He has performed with a variety of local Chicago bands, orchestras, and percussion ensembles, and has been behind the kit on countless recordings and performances by notable Chicago artists such as Hector Hermosillo, Chris Seibold (Prairie Home Companion), Fred Cantu (Chuchito Valdez), and others such as Heather Headley, Doc Severinson, and recently with Bruno Mars in Las Vegas. Most notably, he has toured Central and South America with the fusion rock group "Torre Fuerte”. He is the drummer for the Chicago-based, fusion super group "The Renegades". As a teenager, he was a Guitar Center drum-off semi-finalist twice. He attended DePaul University where he studied with greats such as Joel Spencer (U of I), Ted Atkatz (CSO), and the inventor of the rototom, Al Payson (CSO). He then studied at NEIU where he received a degree in music education, and is currently Director of Bands at Old Quarry Middle School in Lemont IL., where he has the privilege of teaching music to more than two-hundred students. When he's not doing that, he puts on a tuxedo every weekend with the Ken Arlen Orchestra, which plays over 60 gigs a year.