(MOORESTOWN, NJ) -- Perkins Center for the Arts has announced the lineup of its 2023 outdoor summer concerts, hosting a diverse collection of local artists and entertainment sharing their art with the South Jersey area.
The Perkins Gather on the Green evolved in response to our communities’ need to have accessible, diverse, and impactful arts based programs that promote gathering and healing. These events are family-friendly, pet-friendly, BYOC “Bring Your Own Chair,” and support emerging and established artists. Concerts will be held rain or shine, thanks to the covered stage. This year’s World Stage concerts will also have a dance floor, giving guests of all ages a place to groove to the music.
The Perkins Center for the Arts offers a diverse selection of summertime entertainment, including three distinct and unique experiences: Lawn Chair, Indie Night, and World Stage concerts. Concerts with a ticket fee support the performers directly.
The Lawn Chair Concert Series is comprised of local musicians varying from cover bands to independent musicians and invites guests to bring their chairs or blankets and enjoy the venue. The Indie Night Concert Series highlights indie music genres like indie rock, indie pop, folk, and experimental musicians and supports emerging musicians. The World Stage: Dance it Out Series uses Dance as a universal language to feature cultural performances from various regions worldwide.
Perkins Center for the Arts is located at 395 Kings Highway in Moorestown, New Jersey.
Event Lineup
June 20 - World Stage: Dance It Out! Swing Style with Abe Speller Quartet and Greg & Laurie Swing Perkins Center Moorestown. Their Dance It Out! series kicks off with high-energy swing jazz music, the backbone of Lindy hop, Charleston and blues styles of dances. Enjoy a live performance by the Abe Speller Quartet featuring Philly jazz diva Demetria Bailey. The friendly and open teaching styles of Greg Avakian and Laurie Zimmerman, heroes of the Philadelphia swing scene, will get you dance-floor ready, whether you’re a beginner or seasoned dancer.
June 23 Evergreen Lawn, Perkins Center Moorestown. Indie Concert featuring Out of Service, Hopesos/Belvoirs, and Beenbetter at 6:30pm, $10. Come join them for the first of 3 Indie Night Concerts on the Lawn! Out of Service, Hopesos/Belvoirs, and Beenbetter will be bringing their individual unique brands of Indie rock to the stage here in Moorestown!
Out of Service is an indie rock outfit from the South Jersey/Philadelphia area signed to Enjoy the Ride Records. Mike Capuano (vocals), Teebs Williams (guitar), Ken Bond (drums), and Brian McGovern (bass) draw from their unique brand of intensity and musicianship in every performance.The band released their latest album, The Ground Beneath Me, on Enjoy the Ride Records in June 2022. The album grapples with racial prejudice, the loss of loved ones, and the frailty of life.
Beenbetter is a 4 piece pop-punk band from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. They are heavily influenced by the sounds of the late 90s- early 2000s. Their debut full length ‘Thanks For Asking’ was released in November of 2022 and is currently streaming everywhere. Their lyrics cover a range of subjects from relationships, to overcoming addiction to strippers.
June 27 - World Stage: Dance It Out! Afro-Caribbean Style, featuring Segunda Quimbamba, Perkins Center Moorestown. They can’t wait to showcase Jersey’s fantastic bomba y plena dance and drum community with a workshop and stage presentation by Segunda Quimbamba! SQ co-founder Nanette Hernandez invites you onto the dance floor to move your whole body while getting a taste of this rich Afro-Puerto Rican folkloric tradition. Enjoy a live performance by SQ’s incredible ensemble of percussionists and vocalists.
July 11 - World Stage: Dance It Out! Cumbia style featuring Viva Vallenato!, Perkins Center Moorestown. The Viva Vallenato! cumbia band performs the electrifying folk music of Colombia and Latin America. The rhythms will make you want to dance and the accordion will sing to your soul. This music, the dance moves and costumes capture the alegria and the cultural memory of a people with roots in Africa, the Andes, and Europe. Come early and learn some cumbia moves with Hugo and Josefina!
July 14 - Evergreen Lawn, Perkins Center Moorestown. Indie Concert featuring Sweep Echo, Think Machine, and Valendina, at 6:30pm, $10
July 18 - World Stage: Dance It Out! Middle Eastern Style with Joseph Tayoun and Meesha Dance, Perkins Center Moorestown. Experience live authentic Arabic, Turkish, Greek and Israeli music and dance with world percussionist Joseph Tayoun and his Middle Eastern ensemble. Journey to the folkloric dance styles of the Levantine (and Lebanese weddings) with a pre-concert dabke dance workshop with Michelle (Meesha) Tayoun. You’ll have tons of fun and get a great workout too.
Philadelphia’s Mid East Ensemble has been performing since the early 1990’s. The origins of the band stem from the Tayoun family’s Middle East Restaurant which provided authentic music, culture and cuisine for over 40 years in Old City Philadelphia. The group consists of the area’s top Middle Eastern musicians and dancers from the tri-state area and beyond. Instrumentation on any given occasion includes: oud, bouzouki, clarinet, nai, zourna, violin, tabla, riq, def, keyboards, bass guitar, guitar and vocalists. Dancing includes various forms of dance commonly referred to as belly dance and folk dances referred to as dabkeh.
The configuration of the Mid East Ensemble can range from a duet to an orchestra. The artists of the Mid East Ensemble are acclaimed for their original interpretations, arrangements and choreographies of centuries old musical compositions, traditional folk music and various dance traditions from the Levantine and Anatolian regions.
For the concert on July 18th the ensemble will include: William Tayoun on keyboards, Joseph Tayoun on tabla/darbouka, Andrew Geller on riq, Steve Vosbikian on clarinet, Bill Koutsouros on bouzouki and Meesha providing the traditional dance.
July 25 - World Stage: Dance It Out! Bollywood Style, Perkins Center Moorestown. Experience the high energy of Bollywood, the thrilling music and dance genre of India’s Hindi-language film industry that has risen to meteoric worldwide fame. Warm up and get focused with a yoga workshop led by Perkins mind-body artist Ritu Pandya. Then you’ll be ready to bust out some signature Bolly moves with special guest performers Nadia Neubert (Bollytrim) and Chaitali (Doonya). Or just kick back in your lawn chair and enjoy some spectacular stage performances.
August 4 - Evergreen Lawn, Perkins Center Moorestown. Indie Concert featuring All Systems Go, Wishful Thinking, and Floracene, at 6:30pm, $10
Perkins Center for the Arts is a regional, multi-disciplinary arts education center with locations in Moorestown and Collingswood, New Jersey. With a mission to enrich lives, inspire life-long learning, and cultivate intercultural experiences, Perkins Center for the Arts offers a music conservatory, visual and performing arts classes, exhibitions, concerts, artist-led school residency programs, summer camp, Folklife Center, and community enrichment projects.
