The Longwood Symphony Orchestra at the New England Conservatory are planning a program called "Symphonic Relief For Haiti: A Global Concert to Benefit Partners In Health" for Sunday January 31, 2010, from 12:30—2 p.m.
Here is the release from NEC:
Goal is to Raise $250,000 for Earthquake Ravaged Country
(BOSTON) – In keeping with its mission to Heal the Community through Music, Boston-based Longwood Symphony Orchestra and New England Conservatory present Symphonic Relief for Haiti at NEC’s Jordan Hall, S Artistic Director Jonathan McPhee will conduct LSO, an orchestra whose membership is comprised mainly of health care professionals representing nearly every medical institution in the city. Featured artists will include NEC faculty Paula Robison and Richard Stoltzman, NEC student
Jean Bernard Cerin and Preparatory student Aurélie Théramène, A Far Cry chamber orchestra, and the Boston Children's Chorus conducted by Anthony Trecek King. Student musicians from NEC, Longy School of Music, Boston Conservatory, and Boston University will augment the instrumental ensembles.
The concert has already received a $10,000 sponsorship from Partners HealthCare and $10,000 from Tufts Health Plan. Proceeds will benefit the Stand With Haiti initiative of Partners In Health, the non-profit, Boston-based health care organization created in 1987 by Dr. Paul Farmer, Thomas J. White, and Todd McCormack. On the ground in Haiti for 20 years,
Longwood Symphony has had a longstanding relationship with PIH, which was one of the orchestra's Community Partners in 2006. Some members of the orchestra are traveling to Haiti to take part in the medical relief effort including Dr. Mark Gebhardt,
Principal Clarinet and Chair of Orthopedic Surgery at Beth Israel Hospital.
The musicians will play works by Bach, Faure, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Tchaikovsky, as well as Albert Schweitzer Portrait by American composer Gene Scheer, which was co-commissioned by LSO and the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship and given its world premiere last spring by the LSO. Modeled after Copland's A Lincoln Portrait, the Scheer work pays homage to the legacy of Dr. Albert Schweitzer whose work as a physician, musician and humanitarian translated idealism into action, eliminating health care inequalities through direct service.
Among the performers are two with Haitian backgrounds: baritone Jean Bernard Cerin, a Master's degree candidate at the Conservatory whose family survived the Haiti earthquake but is living outside of the home in fear of aftershocks; and 17-year old Haitian-American violinist Aurélie Théramène, a student in Project STEP whose family in Haiti has also been deeply affected
by the disaster. All musicians are donating their time and expertise to this ambitious effort because of their beliefs that music builds human capacity, elevates the soul, and prepares students for lives that enhance the public
good.
The goal of Symphonic Relief for Haiti is three-fold:
• to raise $250,000, through the concert and other fundraising, for the work of Partners In Health in Haiti
• to honor the men and women who are volunteering their time and expertise in Haiti
• to stand in solidarity with the local Haitian community
All general admission tickets are $25 and available in person at the Jordan
Hall Box Office, 290 Huntington Ave. Boston, online at
http://necmusic.edu/symphonic-relief-haiti, or by phone at 617.585.1260. For
more information, visit Longwood Symphony at www.longwoodsymphony.org or call
617.667.1527 or visit the NEC website
To make a donation directly to this initiative for Partners In Health.