“If Music Be the Food…”, the concert series benefiting Rochester’s Foodlink, will present the final concert of its seventh season on Monday, May 2, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. at St Paul’s Episcopal Church, 25 Westminster Road (at East Avenue) in Rochester.
“If Music Be the Food…” is a grass roots community project whose mission is to increase awareness and support for the hungry through the sharing of great music. Eastman faculty and students, members of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, other local professional musicians and distinguished international guests donate their time and talents for these concerts so that all proceeds can go to the hungry via Foodlink. This is a fully volunteer endeavor. No tickets are sold for the concerts, rather, audience members are asked to bring non-perishable food items or cash donations for Foodlink as the price of admission. This season’s first two concerts have garnered more than $2500 and nearly 600 pounds of food for Foodlink.
Robert Poovey, Director of Music at St Paul’s, will open the concert with Handel’s Concerto in F for Organ, Strings, and Two Oboes. He will be joined by Eastman School of Music students Wendy Toh, Ji-Yeon Lee, Sergio Munoz, Lucas Button, Elliot Lichtenberg, and Andrew Blanke. Bass-Baritone Jan Opalach will collaborate with pianist Ted Taylor in excerpts from the beloved Magelone Lieder of Johannes Brahms. The Grammy Award winning Ying Quartet will perform Janacek’s dramatic String Quartet Number One, also known as the “Kreutzer Sonata”, and the concert will conclude with Robert Poovey and Eastman student Karl Robson performing a rousing rendition of Richard Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries arranged for organ four hands and four feet!
“If Music Be the Food…” was created in 2009 by Carol Rodland, Professor of Viola at the Eastman School of Music. A passionate and long-time supporter of food banks, Rodland joined the Eastman faculty in 2008. Rochester’s high poverty rate and the accompanying problem of food insecurity for so many of the city’s residents inspired her to create the concert series. Peter DuBois, Director of Music at Third Presbyterian Church, and Robert Poovey, Director of Music at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church are musical and administrative partners in the series. For further information, please visit www.ifmusicbethefood.com and “like” “If Music Be the Food…” on Facebook.
The success of “If Music Be the Food…” has inspired other prominent musicians in the United States to create initiatives based on this concept in their own communities, including “If Music Be the Food…” Tampa, “If Music Be the Food…” Tucson, “If Music Be the Food…” Dickinson, and the newly launched “If Music Be the Food…” Baltimore, as well as “Music For Food” in Boston.
“Foodlink is a regional food hub and the Feeding America food bank serving Allegany, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne, Wyoming, and Yates counties. Our operations target the root causes of hunger by distributing food to a network of human service agencies, serving meals through our commercial kitchen, and offering more than 30 food-related programs. In 2015, Foodlink distributed nearly 19 million pounds of food – including 4.6 million pounds of produce – offered more than 200 nutrition education courses, and created new access points for healthy foods in underserved communities. Our innovative approach directly addresses health disparities related to food insecurity. Learn more about our mission to end hunger and to leverage the power of food to build a healthier community at www.foodlinkny.org.”
Contact: Carol Rodland, Artistic Director: 585-274-1417; crodland@esm.rochester.edu
Robert Poovey, Administrative Liason: robert@stpaulsec.org
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