(PHILADELPHIA) -- On Thursday, April 28th, musician/composer/producer Andrew Lipke and internationally acclaimed Celtic folk act The John Byrne Band will play alongside elementary school students at a benefit concert open to the public to celebrate the revitalization of the auditorium at Alexander Adaire K-8 School in Fishtown.
"The joy that music brings is equaled only by its power to expand the mind and inspire the soul," Byrne says. "As a musician and someone who spent 8 years teaching high school, I'm delighted and proud to help bring a strong and lasting music program to the Adaire School and to give something back to the neighborhood that has become my adopted home."
With budget cuts and shortfalls hitting Philadelphia public schools yearly, many schools have struggled to keep enrichment subjects such as art and music. To help bridge the gap in Fishtown, a local community organization, Friends of Adaire, stepped in and helped raise enough to update the school's aging and broken stage equipment. With the help of the Penn Treaty Special Services District, which provided a $12,000 matching grant, and the generous contributions of over 50 community donors, Friends of Adaire raised the needed funds in just over four months.
This spring, to celebrate the success and to fundraise for new musical instruments for the students, Alexander Adaire K-8 school in Fishtown will open its doors to the community and general public for a special benefit concert.
Lipke, known for his current collaboration with the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, and John Byrne, a regular at World Cafe Live, will work with Adaire students to create a joint opening act, under the guidance of Adaire music teachers Judith Goltz and Elizabeth Green.
“Investing my time and energy in the community of Fishtown - and especially the local schools and school music programs - is incredibly important to me,” says Lipke. “Not just because I feel music is an integral part of life and of immeasurable value to growing children, not just because this is my home, but also because I'm sending my daughter to Adaire this fall....and my daughter's future and the future of many in her growing circle of friends rests on the foundations we're building together, as a community, right now.”
Doors open at 6pm. Limited free parking will be available in the schoolyard at Thompson and Palmer streets. The silent auction and 50/50 raffle start at 6:30. Musical performances begin at 7. Childcare and activities provided by Palmer Pond Arts Center will be available for children. The audience will be invited to attend an afterparty at Frankford Hall.
Proceeds from the event will benefit the Adaire music program.
Contact Denis Devine, communications chair of FoA for further information at: [email protected]
About the John Byrne Band
John Byrne’s latest release, "The Immigrant and the Orphan," has been called “gorgeous, nostalgic ... everything that tugs at your soul and spills your blood and guts” (That Music Mag) and a “powerful, deeply moving work that will stay with you long after you have heard it” (Sing Out). Following up 2011’s "After the Wake" and 2013’s "Celtic Folk," "The Immigrant and the Orphan" was released to a sold-out World Café Live in Sept 2015 and entered the FolkDJ Charts at number 40. Together 7 years, much of which has been spent touring the US and Ireland/UK, the John Byrne Band has been compared to Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, the Pogues, and Tom Waits. The band's popularity has brought them to festival stages nationwide, including the Philadelphia Folk Fest in both 2014 and 2015.
About Andrew Lipke
Born in South Africa, Andrew Lipke moved to Philadelphia to pursue a degree in composition at The University of The Arts and has since gone on to become a critically acclaimed and sought-after composer, performer, arranger, producer, and educator. Andrew is driven by a passion to find the common ground between disparate styles of music, and his career reflects this. He has performed with and composed/arranged for several prominent American orchestras and ensembles such as The Aizuri Quartet (The Curtis Institute string quartet in residence), Indianapolis Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, among others. He has produced dozens of records for local and regional artists and released five solo albums. In 2010, Andrew formed the Azrael String Quartet to perform music he had written for his album "The Plague," which upon release was named one of 2011’s 50 best albums by Philadelphia Weekly. Through his involvement with the Philadelphia-based non-profit Live Connections, Andrew has collaborated with several members of the Philadelphia Orchestra and other prominent musicians to create cross-genre presentations for young people highlighting the transformative and boundary-crossing nature of music.
About Friends of Adaire
The Friends of Adaire is registered 501(c)3 grassroots non-profit organization working to support, enable, and promote excellence in education at Alexander Adaire K-8 Public School in Fishtown, Philadelphia. You can follow our work at www.friendsofadaire.org.