Nikola Dokic is an adjunct instructor of drums and percussion at LLCC, and a Doctor of Music Arts from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. He is a native of Serbia, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in jazz drums performance. He was awarded the Donnie Heitler Jazz Scholarship and John Garvey Scholarship in Jazz Studies, both at UIUC. Versatile drummer and percussionist, his 25-year long professional career includes jazz, Latin and ethnic music bands, as well as musical theater, symphonic and national opera orchestras.
Dr. Dokic’s sonic concept can be described as a convergence of the complex rhythmic structures of Balkan music with American jazz. The blues is also a strong part of his musical personality, and his band Dr. Project Blank has achieved over 13 million views on YouTube with one single video from 2017. Nikola performs regularly at local jazz venues with Chip McNeil (Grammy-winning artist and director of the music department at UIUC), Brad Wheeler, Frank Parker, Johnnie Owens, Jason Brewer, Melinda Rodrigues, Jim Pryor, Larry Gray and Tito Carrillo, among others.