Frisch junior Judah Lopkin is not your average drummer. On November 20, Lopkin took to the streets of New York City to perform the bucket drums with the goal of raising money for the food rescue organization City Harvest. The bucket drums, as the Webster dictionary defines it, is a style of percussion that involves drumming on plastic buckets and other objects to create beats and rhythms.
So how does a Frisch junior decide to do this? “As much as I enjoy drumming, I felt unfulfilled,” Lopkin said. “I really wanted to use my passion for drumming to do something that mattered. I became tremendously inspired by the YouTuber and philanthropist MrBeast, who makes charity fun through entertaining fundraisers and donations. I wanted to combine my passion for drumming with charity in a fun way, and the idea of playing in New York City took off from there.”
Lopkin explained that choosing City Harvest as the nonprofit to raise money for was a no-brainer. “City Harvest is an organization that helps feed the over 1.5 million New Yorkers living at or below the poverty line, who can’t afford their next meal. Food insecurity is part of a massive challenge, of course, and I wanted to help out as much as possible.” He added that because the audience in New York would be so diverse, it was important that everyone walking by would be able to understand the cause. “City Harvest is something anyone in New York City can recognize and appreciate.”
After formulating the plan, Lopkin began training to play in the city, although the method was a little different than the typical approach to practicing an instrument.
“When you’re performing in a concert, the expectation is that everyone watching bought a ticket and traveled out to see you play,” Lopkin said. “But when you’re playing on the street, people just happen by with no expectations. I wanted to prepare enough so that maybe someone would stop by, listen for a bit, and drop some change in the bucket for City Harvest. I practiced for months, putting together different beats and working to improve my hand speed and stamina.”
The day of playing in New York City finally arrived.
“My parents took me to Washington Square Park, and with butterflies in my stomach, I set up my buckets, and began playing my set. After a couple of minutes, people began watching, dancing, taking videos, and even donating money to City Harvest!”
Lopkin said that the most important thing to him during this experience was that he was wearing a kippah.
“In light of the recent rise in antisemitism, I felt it was special to go out there while displaying my Jewish pride. It was really cold and windy outside but I made sure to be wearing the kippah the whole time. No one said anything about it.”
Lopkin captured the experience in a video for his followers on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, @thedrumcell.
“I started posting drum videos in eighth grade after a friend suggested I do so and I fell in love with the process. At first, I started off making videos drumming to my favorite songs, and eventually I pivoted to making drum tutorials.” As Lopkin explained, however, creating content hasn’t been easy. “I spent hours every day writing, filming and editing my drum videos, but my account stayed stagnant at 11.9K followers for 17 months in a row. I liked making them though, so I spent all of last summer figuring out how to make the videos as good as possible, and with some research and a bit of luck, the views and followers started to pick up. I was fortunate enough to even get a sponsorship.”
So after playing in New York City, what’s next? “This experience was incredible. It was amazing seeing strangers help raise money for such a paramount cause. My goal is to continue these performances and make entertaining videos out of them to further help New Yorkers in need. If I can help out at all, I see that as a win.”
By Jewish Link Staff
