April Centrone

April Centrone is a performer and educator of the Arabic riqq (tambourine), as well as the darbekkeh (goblet drum) and frame drum, student of master Lebanese/Palestinian percussionist, Michel Baklouk Merhej. She has performed with renowned Arab artists such as Marcel Khalife, Ziad Rahbani, Bassam Saba and Najib Shaheen. Centrone was born in Harlem on March 31. She originally lived between Manhattan and Canarsie, Brooklyn before the whole family moved down to the Jersey Shore. She began playing drumset and western percussion at the age of 9. Since then, she never stopped drumming, enjoying everything from the neighborhood classmate garage rock band, to the jazz band, pit band, classical orchestra and marching band in grammar and high school. Today, Centrone is an accomplished and versatile performer of drumset in the hard rock, jazz, funk, world, progressive and avante-garde styles. Centrone plays a variety of other percussion and string instruments aside from the Arabic percussion and drums, including the oud (Arabic lute) and Arabic violin. Centrone is the executive director and co-founder of the New York Arabic Orchestra, directed by Bassam Saba. In fall of 2009, Centrone participated as a guest teaching artist and consultant for Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Connect (NYC), a year-round world-education initiative for public school 6th-graders. Centrone serves as Musicians For Harmony’s Lead Teaching Artist, where she directs M4H's Music of the World, a 6-week program for inner-city youths of 12-18 years featuring guest artists from 5 different world traditions. Centrone, an acclaimed educator, continually holds workshops and classes for both adults and children of all ages, and has participated in Arabic music lectures at universities including Berklee School of Music and Cleveland Institute of Music. Centrone has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, NYC Opera House, Lincoln Center and Town Hall, and festivals such as the Beirut Jazz Festival in Lebanon, FMM Sines (world music) in Portugal and Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors in New York City. Centrone has toured throughout North America, Middle East, Europe, Taiwan, South America, and New Zealand. Centrone's current music projects on drumset include Bassam Saba- AL-MADAR (Arabic rock) and Secret Chiefs 3 (Trey Spruance). Arabic percussion projects include the Bassam Saba Ensemble (classical Arabic takht) and the New York Arabic Orchestra. Other projects include Eyvind Kang, Christian Jarvi’s Absolute Ensemble, and Nolan Gasser's World Concerto where she was a featured soloist with the East Oakland Bay Symphony. In theatre, Centrone was the music director and composer for "Arabian Nights" by Mary Zimmerman (Peter Jay Sharp Theatre 2006), and performed percussion, oud and violin for one-woman plays, "Head over Heels in Saudi Arabia" by Maisah Sobaihi, and "Everyone Has Tears" by Cynthia Sophiea. Centrone holds a MA in psychology from John Jay College and began the first music therapy program at a prominent NY children’s psychiatric center. Centrone has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in forensic psychology at Adelphi University in Garden City, NY. April Centrone is a performer/educator of Arabic percussion, Arabic music theory and oud, western drumset, and co-founder of the NY Arabic Orchestra.