How a Drum Line Director Spends Her Sundays

Stacy Kovacs, who founded Fogo Azul NYC, totes her drums around the city, fends off her cat and never watches TV.

For most of her life, Stacy Kovacs has been following the beat of the drum, which has led her to people and places she never anticipated.

“Drums are about rhythms and patterns, and I love patterns,” said Ms. Kovacs, 48, the founder of Fogo Azul NYC, a drum line for women and people who are transgender or nonbinary. “I see music in colors. Playing the drum is like making art.”

Ms. Kovacs, who is a physician assistant at NewYork-Presbyterian, started out playing piano at age 5. By 8 she was a drummer, and although she took up the trombone in her teens, she retained an affinity for striking the sticks.

“I used to drum on everything when I was a child,” said Ms. Kovacs, who is from Buffalo. “When we went out to eat, I would drum on the table with straws.”

The fact that there weren’t many female drummers in the 1980s only spurred her on.

She began playing drums in Brazilian bands in New York City and has performed at the Carnival in Salvador, Brazil, and at events in France, Spain, Bermuda and Britain. In 2016, she founded Fogo Azul NYC. The band, whose name means “blue fire” in Portuguese, started with only 14 drummers and now has 132, ages 14 to 89. It’s also where Ms. Kovacs met her partner, who is in the film industry.