Ossining MATTERS Benefit Raises Nearly $50,000 for Ossining Schools
Click here to see photos from the evening.

“A Night of Music with DBR & THE MISSION”

Ossining MATTERS’ March 11 gala benefit concert featuring Ossining High School’s Gimme the Microphone performers, student musicians, and the composer and performer Daniel Bernard Roumain with his nine-piece band, raised nearly $50,000, which will be used to supplement academic, cultural arts, and athletic programs in the Ossining School District.

More than 500 people attended the concert, with plenty of walk-ins drawn by a flurry of pre-show publicity, including Fox News coverage of DBR’s workshops at OHS, and CBS-TV’s feature piece on DBR the night before the event. The moment the show began, it was clear what all the excitement had been for. The talent and energy on the OHS stage were electrifying, and the audience was swept up in the experience. The final piece, a showdown between DBR & THE MISSION and a brave group of OHS musicians and teachers, all playing DBR’s “Hip Hop Studies and Etudes in c# Minor,” had the crowd on its feet, and when DBR stepped to the microphone afterward to say, “This is what it’s all about,” the whole auditorium agreed.

Following the concert, the party moved to a private home, where DBR, his band, and Ossining MATTERS supporters celebrated the evening’s success. Along with food and beverages donated by local restaurants and merchants, the reception featured both a silent and a live auction. Items ranging from an airplane flight over the Hudson, to the chance to be a character in a new novel by James Patterson, to a week at a flat in London, drew spirited bidding, though the competition was always friendly. The auction receipts boosted the evening’s proceeds considerably, helping to ensure that Ossining MATTERS Education Foundation will continue to be able to fund a broad range of programs meeting a wide variety of student needs and interests throughout the Ossining School District.