LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville's famous kid percussion group, the Louisville Leopards Percussionists, will take the stage for the first time in more than two years this weekend.

The group, which is made up of kids from different schools and backgrounds, has been praised by Ozzy Osbourne and other music superstars. They've been featured in viral videos and even an HBO documentary. 

The Leopards play everything from pop to jazz music and originals. But the pandemic silenced the group for the past two years. Thursday night, at their space in Old Louisville, the band was back together for their final practice before they take the stage once again this weekend for "The Big Gig."

"The Big Gig" is the biggest event and fundraising effort for the group. The 2021 gig was held virtually, but this year it's back in person.

"We have not played a gig, in public, since January 2020," Diane Downs said. "The Big Gig is our major fundraiser for the year. So we use the proceeds from Big Gig just to fund our programs and make sure the kids have great opportunities."

Downs, founder and artistic director of the Louisville Leopards, said none of the kids in the group read music — they feel it and pick up on it. All of the kids, from second through eighth grade, play more than one instrument.

"My favorite instrument is the marimba, I can see the colors of the music. Every time a song comes on, I just see some sort of color of what the music sounded like," Phoenix Harris said.

Harris, 10, is a fourth grader at Farmer Elementary. He's been with the Leopards for three years. 

"I really like to play the bass. You can't really play the instruments without dancing and moving to the beat," 11-year-old Juneapple Hopkins, a fifth grader at Lincoln Elementary Performing Arts School, said. "I don't know what I would do with the Leopards. In the five years that I've been playing with the leopards, it's changed my life entirely."

Downs said it's not necessarily about who is the most talented, but which kid gets along best and has a great sense of humor.

"The Big Gig gives me kind of like a special feel about how there's gonna be a whole audience of people and some of them I've never met before," said Harris.

"The Big Gig" will be held Sunday, April 24 at 2 p.m. at the Brown Theatre. Click here to purchase tickets.

To learn more about The Louisville Leopards Percussionists, click here.

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