Non-Partisan Benefit Concert
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For immediate release
Contact: Yasmina Kamal, relief-effort@hotmail.com
Boston Area Artists Present Israel – Lebanon Relief Event
Emmanuel Church, Back Bay
Monday, August 7 at 8pm
Boston, July 27 – An ad-hoc coalition of prominent Boston-area artists will be singing, playing, and declaiming at a free concert on Monday, August 7, all in an effort to raise funds for civilian victims of the conflict between Israel and Lebanon.
“This event will be non-sectarian, non-partisan and non-political,” insists Boston Camerata director Joel Cohen, one of the event’s organizers. “But it is clear that all of the participants, like so many of us in the public at large, are horrified by this recent violence. We want to do something to help those who suffer from it.”
“We have gotten different segments of the Boston arts community working together on this,” continues co-producer Kareem Roustom, a Syrian-American composer and member of the Sharq Arab-American ensemble. “We’ll have topnotch performers representing theatre, classical and early music, Arabic, Sephardic-Jewish, and Turkish styles, as well as American music. We’ve discovered that many performing artists want to be a part of this. So many of us want to contribute what we can.”
The evening will include appearance by members of the following institutions and organizations (organization names supplied for identification purposes only): American Repertory Theater; The Boston Camerata; The Boston Philharmonic; Dünya Turkish Music Ensemble; Emmanuel Music; From the Top; Sharq Arab-American Ensemble; Voices of Black Persuasion.
The performance roster, still incomplete as other artists are added, includes Anne Azéma, Jeremy Geidt, Mehmet Sanlikol,Craig Smith, and Benjamin Zander.
Time for the benefit concert is 8 PM on Monday, August 7. The doors of Emmanuel Church in Boston’s Back Bay will be open to all and admission is free. Donations will be requested from audience members with proceeds going to the International Red Cross; other charities have been invited to be present to accept gifts as well in the church foyer.
Emmanuel Church, on Newbury Street next to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and just a block from the Boston Public Garden, is easily reachable by public transportation via the Arlington and Copley Square T stops.
WHAT: A Benefit Concert for Civilian Victims of the Israeli-Lebanese Conflict
WHO: Members of many Boston-area performing arts organizations
WHERE: Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Back Bay, Boston
WHEN: Monday August 7, 8 P.M., admission free, voluntary donations