April Centrone will be performing a concert at Old Bridge Public Library on May 27, 2023 from 12:00pm to 1:00pm. This event is free and open to the public. No registration is required to attend.
April Centrone is a multi-instrumentalist, teacher, composer and film producer based in New York City. She is a Carnegie Hall World Explorer musician and educator, Paul Simon-Carnegie Hall Music Residency Fellow, MidAtlantic Arts Grant recipient, founder of 10PRL Studios in New Jersey, and co-founder of the New York Arabic Orchestra, non-profit organization specializing in the performance and education of Arabic music.
April specializes in the teaching and performance of the riqq (Arabic tambourine), darbuka (Middle Eastern goblet drum), frame drum, drumset, and the oud (Arabic lute).
As a drummer and percussionist, she has toured with Arab icons including Ziad Rahbani (son of Fairouz), Marcel Khalife, and Bassam Saba (Sting, Alicia Keys, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Yo-Yo Ma), and experimental/rock/jazz groups including Secret Chiefs 3 (Mr. Bungle) and Eyvind Kang (Bill Frisell).
As a youth educator, April worked closely with inner-city schools throughout NYC’s boroughs, teaching Arabic music and percussion and coordinating world music projects through Musicians For Harmony and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Connect.
She led Music Therapy Tour of Malaysia under the U.S. Embassy, which included workshops at Rohingya refugee youth centers and safe houses for young Malaysian women. She held Arabic music workshops for Syrian and Palestinian refugee youth through her project, Juthoor, founded with Nisreen Nasser, during her residence in Lebanon from 2013 to 2016.
April has performed in venues such as the United Nations, NYC Opera House, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and has toured throughout Europe, the Americas, Middle East and Far East, performing at the Marciac Jazz Festival (FR), New Zealand World Music Festival, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors (NYC), Musicas Do Mundo (PT), Beirut Jazz Festival (LB), Taipei Chinese Orchestra Silk Road Conference (TW), and others, and has led workshops in universities around the world.