Shine Foundation

May 2, 2023 - Dr. Peter Bottros founded an organization called SHINE, a non-profit which provides music education to inner city kids in York County.  In 2005, 18-year-old Peter found himself sitting at a grand piano for the first time. The instrument lived in the corner of a common room at Pennsylvania State University in York, Pennsylvania, where Peter was a freshman. Peter came back to this piano often, and figured out melodies of songs he knew. He then discovered patterns and chords, which led to improvising. “Music just kind of started coming out,” he says. Those dream-like improvisations turned into original compositions. The hobby soon grew into a frenzied passion. He skipped classes in order to practice. Friends and professors eventually caught word, and gathered around to listen. As it turns out, Peter’s immigration from Egypt is the heartbeat of this story. The challenges of being a ten-year-old in a new country, learning English, settling into a new culture, and helping his parents to make ends meet have all prepared him for being a musician. In November 2016, twenty years after moving to America, Peter made his debut performance to a sold out crowd at his alma mater’s state-of-the-art 1,000 seat concert hall. The show featured songs he wrote from his album Shine, accompanied by a 10-piece ensemble and various other local musicians in York. From the stage, he spoke about his story of immigrating to America from Egypt as a child, tailoring it especially to York’s youth population, who made up a large portion of the audience. “I want to inspire and motivate the future generation, and change their mindset to believing in their gifts and potential,” he said.