Mark your Calendar: Sunday, April 11 Mozart Requiem at St. John's Basilica Benefit Concert for Haiti

Benefit Concert for Haiti
The Choir of the Basilica of St. John and the Stamford Symphony to perform Mozart Requiem.

The City of Stamford will come together to commemorate the 3-month anniversary of the tragic earthquake in Haiti with a benefit concert performance of Mozart’s Requiem on Sunday, April 11 at 7:30 pm at the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist in Stamford. Led by musicians of the Stamford Symphony and conducted by Eckart Preu, the performance will feature the choir of the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist, its director Scott Turkington, organist, soprano Rachel Rosales and tenor David Vanderwal.

All proceeds from the concert will benefit victims of the Haiti earthquake. Members of the Haitian American Catholic Center will be collecting a suggested contribution of $25 at the door and a Donors Circle at $50 will offer reserved seating and a listing in the concert program. To contribute visit www.StJohnsStamford.com.

Everyone involved with the concert is contributing their time and talent to the project. Stamford Symphony musician Peter Weitzner commented, “The musicians, as members of the Stamford community, wanted to express their concerns and sympathies for our Haitian neighbors by doing what we do best: making music. We hope this performance of Mozart’s Requiem will bring solace to those affected by this tragedy, especially those who are longing for an opportunity to commemorate family and friends who have died.”

The concert will take place at the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist following their weekly, Sunday evening Haitian Mass in French and Creole. The parish is home to the Haitian American Catholic Center which serves over 800 Haitian families in Stamford. So many of these families are wrestling with the reality that they will never know where their loved ones where buried following the earthquake. This concert offers an opportunity for them to honor the dead. St.. John’s pastor, Monsignor Stephen DiGiovanni explains, ”Mozart's Requiem, is one of the most spiritually sensitive treaments of the Catholic Requiem Mass, while one of the most moving: capturing the depth of the Mass texts by his evocative musical score, both of which convey the theological and spiritual essence of Catholic belief in death and eternal life, while conveying the layers of anguish, pain and hope in the hearts of those who have experienced the death of loved ones, and of those agonizingly facing death in their own lives. The co-operation of the Stamford Symphony and the Basilica of Saint John's Choir to join their talents to offer this as a City-wide expression of grief, sympathy and hope for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti, is one of the most beautiful signs of that Stamford truly is the City that cares, as Mayor Pavia has repeatedly described Stamford.”

All proceeds from the concert will benefit Hope for Haiti, a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization founded by Stamford resident JoAnne Kuehner. Their mission is to improve the quality of life for the Haitian people, particularly children, through education, nutrition, and healthcare. Hope for Haiti has improved the quality of life of hundreds of thousands of Haitian children and their families. Their unique approach of helping the poorest of the poor in Haiti is both efficient and effective. Over 96% of donations directly reach the people who need it most and 100% of all donations received in response to the earthquake are going directly to their disaster relief effort on the ground. Learn more at www.hopeforhaiti.com.

A commemorative program will be distributed at the concert. Anyone who lost a family member in the earthquake is invited to submit a 100-word commemoration of that individual for the program. These memorials will be published free of charge; a photograph can be added for $10. Businesses who wish to support the benefit concert can purchase advertising starting at $50. Individuals donating $50 or more will also be listed in the program book. For details contact [email protected] or 203.325.1407 x14.

Tickets for the concert are not required, but audiences may donate in advance at www.StJohnsStamford.com.