Rock star's drum circle planned at T.O.'s Chumash Interpretive Center

By Daniel Miller, dmiller@VenturaCountyStar.com
March 17, 2006

When the Chumash Interpretive Center hosts community drum circles, it often has to plan around a rock star's schedule.

Rick Allen, the drummer for rock group Def Leppard, recently returned home from a three-week trip to India, but he wasn't on tour; he was on a spiritual retreat with his wife, Lauren Monroe. Allen and Monroe returned to lead the drum circle, "Music as Medicine," on March 25 at the Chumash Interpretive Center in Thousand Oaks.

The two-hour event, which is open to the public and accepts a $15 donation per adult, is co-organized by Raven Drum Foundation, a Malibu-based organization founded by Allen and Monroe that promotes the use of drums as healing tools. Allen has continued drumming with Def Leppard after losing an arm in a car crash in 1984.

"Our mission is to empower individuals in crisis in the community using the power of the drum," said Karen Schiltz, office manager for the foundation. "Part of our goal is to help at-risk kids. It's about bringing everyone together for one purpose to heal each other."

Monroe said that the quarterly community drum circles that she and her husband lead have grown rapidly. At the last event, approximately 150 people participated.

"This circle is about oneness, unity and bringing forth the concepts of how music and people playing music together is a healing and transcendent experience," said Monroe, a Malibu resident.

Robert Vann, the former chairman of the board of directors at the Chumash center, said that the drum circles incorporate many styles of drumming.

"The drumming is in the Native American style, and also people come and bring Irish, Scottish, Japanese, and African drums," said Vann, who attends the drum circles and helped plan the event. Vann, who has Cherokee Indian ancestry and also goes by the name Nighthawk, retired from his post last week. Vann said that for some people, the event is a spiritual experience; for others it is simply a good time.