Twin pianists to perform concert, raise awareness and funds for children’s cancer programs

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) - Lilo and Deena Al-Dawhi have been playing the piano since the age of 9 and earning accolades and recognition in numerous competitions.

They are now seniors in high school and using their forehands to play beautiful music and raise awareness and funds to fight childhood cancer in El Paso.

"Right now some of our family members and loved ones are having ongoing battles with cancer," say Lilo and Deena. "fighting cancer is a is a a cause that we will always be committed to for the rest of our lives."

Sunday, April 16 they will performing "Around the World Concert Classics" a piano duo at Western Hills United Methodist Church on 524 Thunderbird at 3 p.m.

Lilo and Deena were quite young when a keyboard in their house led to the one note which captured their young musical attention.

"Our family are musical in the sense that we love music, all sorts of music. But we listen. None of us play instruments, not the parents, not the aunts, uncles, nobody," said Heba Fareed Al-Dahwi, the twin's proud mother. "They kind of picked up the piano."

An old keyboard in the Al-Dahwi house was the first note in the twin's love of playing the piano since it was something they could do together.

"You know, on the piano you can have piano duets and duos and as twins, obviously that's something that appealed to us," said Lilo.  

The teen twins decided to use their love of music and passion for helping their community by playing pieces composed by Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak, Khairat and Milhaud among others.

"We're trying to make it almost sound orchestral as if it's a whole orchestra playing well. It's just our forehands." 

The piano's power to unite people from all walks of lives drew the teens to the ivories.

"Music's kind of always been a part of our lives. It's kind of the way that we chose to connect with different cultures and languages," said Lilo.

"I think it's so important because like music has that kind of unparalleled power to connect people who may not have any other similarities or anything else uniting them," added Deena.

All the tickets sales from their piano concert is being donated to the El Paso's Children's Hospital Foundation to help children in El Paso fight cancer.