Our Founder

April Centrone

April Centrone is an educator, multi-instrumentalist, music therapist, entrepreneur and film producer based in the NYC area.

As a musician and teacher, April specializes in drums, percussion and the Arabic oud. As a hand percussionist, she specializes in the Arabic riqq, darbuka and frame drum, mentored by late riqq legend, Michel Merhej Baklouk. April has toured throughout the Americas, Asia, Middle East, Far East, New Zealand and Europe as a performer and educator. She toured for two years throughout Lebanon with Ziad Rahbani (son of Fairouz, the diva of Lebanon) in his Arabic orchestra and jazz ensemble, and performed in worldwide events with Bassam Saba, Marcel Khalife, and the Absolute Ensemble. Between 2007 and 2012, she worked with inner-city youth teaching Arabic music and percussion, and coordinating other teaching artists in different world musics, via programs such as Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Connect and Musicians For Harmony.

From 2013 to 2018, she worked overseas with Syrian refugee youth via project Juthoor, created by her and Nisreen Nasser, and Palestinian refugee youth via project Kamandjati, in Shatila and various camps throughout Lebanon; and worked with young women in safe houses and Rohingya refugee youth in a Music Therapy tour sponsored by the U.S. Embassy of Malaysia. She has performed in festivals such as Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors (NYC), World Music Festival of New Zealand, Festival Musicas Do Mundo (PT), Marciac Jazz Festival (FR), Beirut Jazz Festival (LB), and Taipei Chinese Orchestra Silk Road Festival (TW), and venues such as NYC Opera House, the United Nations, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. In the jazz and experimental world, she has toured with Secret Chiefs 3 as opener for Primus, Karl Berger’s Improvisor’s Orchestra, Eyvind Kang and Peter Apfelbaum’s Sparkle Trio, among others. In September of 2019, she created 10PRL, women-owned 6,500 sq ft industrial wedding & event venue, film & photo studio, arts space and dance studios in Long Branch, NJ, and in 2020 launched 10PRL Productions, full-fledged in-house production specializing in filmmaking for all things from corporate to creative.

Contact us

OUR OFFICE 265 W 37th Street Suite 203 New York, NY, 10018 info@nyarabicorchestra.org