Rockit! will rock out at Basie concert on Sunday BY DAN NEWMAN Staff Writer MIDDLETOWN - Bruce Gallipani was doing some grocery shopping near his home when reached by phone earlier this week. While many would consider the act to be pretty mundane, Gallipani was glad he had the time to do it. "With all of the rehearsals in order to get ready for the show, I've been so busy lately," Gallipani said. The show he's referring to is the Rockit! for Kids Summer Concert Sunday at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank at 6 p.m. The concert is the culminating event of a six-week music program organized by Gallipani and his staff this summer in conjunction with the Count Basie Theatre Cool School. Rockit! is a Middletown-based nonprofit organization dedicated to giving local kids the chance to perform live music before audiences. "Count Basie was looking to incorporate some more musical programs for kids this summer and so this was a good opportunity for them and for us to work together, and I really feel like the kids got so much out of it and it'll all be on display at the concert," he said. During the program, Gallipani MIDDLETOWN gave kids ages 8-16 the chance to play guitar, drums, bass, keyboard and many other instruments in an effort to teach them more about music. Since the inception of the program, Rockit! for Kids has doubled in size, forcing Gallipani to hold auditions for spots in his program. "As the program grows, I'm still looking for it to have plenty of integrity, and so I felt that with tryouts or auditions, I'd still be able to get some really great kids in here," he said. "It used to just a bunch a lot of Middletown kids, but now we have people from as far as Toms River and even Staten Island participating, and so I think that really shows how much we have grown in such a short amount of time." Gallipani said that 31 students will be divided between nine musical acts, performing everything from The Beatles to Bon Jovi to Led Zeppelin. While some people in Gallipani's position might want to increase the size of the group, he says he merely wants to increase the number of components he can utilize with his students. "I would love to get these kids into a studio and let them record something," Gallipani said. "It's a very exciting time to be a part of this program." Reserved seats are $10 and can be purchased at the theater's box office. For more information on the show, go to rockitforkids.org.