April Centrone is a multi-instrumentalist, teacher, composer and film producer based in NYC/NJ. She is a Carnegie Hall World Explorer musician and educator, Paul Simon-Carnegie Hall Music Residency Fellow, MidAtlantic Arts Grant recipient, founder and CEO of 10PRL Creative Studios & Event Space 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, Saint Levant 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). She produced, recorded and contributed to the percussion composition for Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, released October 2023, and was co-composer for the Disney+/National Geographic documentary, Attack of the Red Sea Sharks.
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 General Assembly Hall, 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.
April is releasing her new album, Phoenix, in Spring of 2024, featuring her on the oud, saz, buzuq, riqq, darbuka, bendir, drumset and guitar.
April carries a Masters degree in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College, NYC.