Ardmore Benefit Concert To Aid Jewish-Arab Music Program

ARDMORE, PA – An upcoming concert and dinner event at Ardmore Music Hall will raise money for an organization that focuses on music education and collaboration between Jewish and Arab students in the Middle East.

At 8 p.m., Saturday, April 21, the venue will host the event which will benefit Peace Drums, Israel and Peace Drums, USA.

The Second Annual Peace Drums Project Fundraiser for an inspirational evening featuring dinner, dancing and live music.

Tickets cost $50 a piece and are available online here. Attendees must be 21 years or older.

Three live bands will perform during the fundraiser, including Philly's own Trevor Street Band, along with special guests Delaware Steel and Philly Pan Stars. Attendees will also get dinner and be able to purchase spirits at the Ardmore Music Hall bar.

The event will raise money for the salaries of the music teachers who lead the steel band students, while helping to fund the transportation costs of students for rehearsals and concerts, as well as the purchase of additional instruments for other Arab and Jewish communities who support these coexistence programs for their youth.

Peace Drums, run by Co-Founder and Executive Director Harvey Price, is a unique, interfaith project centered in Israel which gives Arab and Jewish youth a chance to play together in a steel drum band, allowing kids who would typically don’t interact with one another to work together on a musical collaboration. They rehearse, learn and subsequently perform concerts together as a group, and gain music education and experience in the process. The project promotes peace among Jewish, Muslim and Christian youth by introducing peacemaking and reconciliation through the shared activity of a dynamic steel drum band. Last fall, the band performed in Vienna.

"These kids are learning the fundamentals of music, including theory, harmony, improvisation, harmony, pitch and so much more," Price, a longtime Philadelphian who is a freelance percussionist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and an associated professor of music at the University of Delaware. said "The kids are doing this together and they're learning something together that they didn't know before, sharing in these experiences and looking beyond the usual stereotype while serving as band mates, classmates and friends."

Corporate sponsorships are available for $1,000, which helps to ensure that Peace Drums performers have the instruments, musical education and the resources needed to continue to spread their message of peace and coexistence worldwide.

The Ardmore Music Hall is located at 23 East Lancaster Ave., Ardmore.

Pictured above is the Peace Drums band playing in Vienna, Austria in fall 2017

Image via Peace Drums