MEDUCTIC, Canada (Sept. 24, 2008) – SABIAN announces it has teamed up with the Five-Star Drum Shops to bring together the largest gathering of drummers ever assembled for a simultaneous drumming experience. Nine Five-Star stores across North America will host “The Big Beat” on Sunday, Nov. 2, to celebrate the joy of drumming and raise money for the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation. The Five-Star Drum Shops group is an organization of 37 independently owned specialty percussion stores in North America.

Founded in 1996, The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation donates new and refurbished musical instruments to underserved schools, community music programs and individual students nationwide, in an effort to give youngsters the many benefits of music education, help them to be better students and inspire creativity and expression through playing music.

Each location is attempting to break the Guinness world record for the most drummers playing the same beat at one time (previously set by Donn Bennett Drum Studio, with 533) as well as set a record for drummers playing simultaneously in each location.

As an official sponsor of The Big Beat, SABIAN will contribute the equivalent of $2,500 to each participating store in the form of artist support and/or giveaways.

“It’s a privilege for SABIAN to be connected with ‘The Big Beat,’ this year,” said Stacey Montgomery-Clark, vice president of marketing at SABIAN. “We relish opportunities like this in which we can support the percussion industry and in particular the drummer consumer and independent retailer.”

The Big Beat is the first attempt to coordinate large scale drumming efforts across North America in the hope of expanding each year until drummers across the globe are locked in on one worldwide beat.

Each location will hold a raffle for participants with the overall winner getting an authentic autographed replica Beatles logo bass drum head. The first 200 participants in each city will receive a goody bag full of drum-related items and each location will also give away prizes donated by the biggest names in the drum industry.

Drummers of all skill levels and experience are encouraged to participate and contact one of these participating Five-Star member locations for details:

• Buffalo Drum Outlet - Depew, N.Y.
• Columbus Percussion - Columbus, Ohio
• Donn Bennett Drum Studio - Bellevue, Wash.
• Drum World - Tulsa, Okla.
• Memphis Drum Shop - Memphis, Tenn.
• Percussion Center - Houston, Texas
• Resurrection Drums - Hollywood, Fla.
• Stebal Drums - Willowick, Ohio
• Just Drums - Toronto, Ontario, CA

Sources: http://bigdrumthump.com/

http://www.mhopus.org/

http://www.sabian.com/