Mike Portnoy

Michael Stephen Mike Portnoy is an American drummer primarily known as the former drummer backing vocalist and a cofounder of the progressive metal band Dream Theater Known for his drumming prowess and technical skill Portnoy has won 23 awards from the Modern Drummer magazine He has coproduced the last six Dream Theater albums with guitarist John Petrucci starting from Metropolis Pt 2 Scenes from a Memory From A Change of Seasons onwards Portnoy had been writing a substantial amount of Dream Theaters lyrics He is the second youngest person after Neil Peart to be inducted into the Modern Drummers Hall of Fame at 37 years of age On September 8 2010 it was announced that Portnoy had left Dream Theater Portnoy cited conflicting interests as the reason behind his departure On February 3 2011 Portnoy announced that he has started a new project with Symphony X singer Russell Allen and guitarist Mike Orlando Also he is involved in various projects with Neal Morse