The Hartford Symphony Orchestra is planning a concert to benefit disaster relief efforts in Nepal.
The musicians of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, having just finished their regular Masterworks season with four subscription performances last week, have decided to play one more concert.
And this one they’re doing free: Sunday night (June 7), the players are presenting a benefit for the people of Nepal in the wake of that country’s devastating earthquakes earlier this spring.
The concert will be presented at 7:00 pm at the Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford. The church’s choir is also performing. There is no admission charge; a freewill offering will be received.
Asylum Hill Congregational Church is located at 814 Asylum Avenue in Hartford, Connecticut.
The musicians, who have conceived, planned and executed this benefit concert themselves, tell me that more than 30 players will participate, a remarkable number.
Sunday’s program will include Mozart’s Symphony No. 29 and Gounod’s Petite Symphonie for Winds. The choir will join the players for portions of the Requiem of Faure and Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus.” Steve Mitchell, the church’s minister of music and the arts, will conduct the choral works.
Also in the program, a group of schoolchildren from the Nepalese Association of Connecticut (NAConn) will sing the national anthem of Nepal. In addition, adult members of the group will talk about the situation in their country since the initial quake struck April 25.
The Nepal crisis is no longer getting daily headlines, but just for the record in our reduced-attention-span age, a quick update on the magnitude of the disaster:
· Over 8,000 people now confirmed dead;
· An estimated 26,000 - 30,000 seriously injured, with more being discovered regularly as relief teams slowly reach remote areas;
· More than half a million homes destroyed, along with hundreds of historic buildings and world heritage sites;
· In all, more than eight million people (more than a quarter of the total population of the country) are affected. Food, water, medicine and other essentials supplies still in desperately short supply throughout the country.
For more information on the Nepalese Association of Connecticut and its ongoing efforts to assist, please go here.
Other Agencies That Are Helping
The site Charity Navigator lists seven vetted relief groups that are assisting in aid and recovery efforts. These agencies are providing food, shelter, medicine, clothing and hygiene items.
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Steve Metcalf was The Hartford Courant’s fulltime classical music critic and reporter for over 20 years, beginning in 1982. He is currently the curator of the Richard P. Garmany Chamber Music Series at The Hartt School. He can be reached at spmetcalf55@gmail.com.
