“It’s been more than two years since photos of Alan Kurdi flashed around the world. The 3-year-old Syrian refugee lay drowned on a Mediterranean beach,” writes Terry Blain in Tuesday’s (10/31) Star Tribune (Minneapolis). “Shortly after, [Minnesota Orchestra Principal Cello Tony] Ross helped organize a benefit concert for Syrian refugees featuring fellow members of the Minnesota Orchestra…. The humanitarian needs remain acute … so [Ross] and his wife, fellow Minnesota Orchestra cellist Beth Rapier, have organized a second benefit for Syrian refugees [on] Nov. 12…. A total of 14 musicians will perform [including] Minnesota Orchestra music director Osmo Vänskä, who will play clarinet in Aaron Copland’s ‘Appalachian Spring.’ The program also includes Mendelssohn’s Octet and Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin…. Money raised this year will benefit an organization called Questscope, part of the Minneapolis-based American Refugee Committee. The concert will specifically help displaced people still residing within Syria…. Ross acknowledges that … the recent onslaught of hurricanes and wildfires has brought devastation, leaving thousands of Americans in need of assistance. ‘Our local community is, of course, always number one on our agenda,’ he explained. ‘But we … don’t want to look only inside. We need to look outside, too.’ ”
Posted November 1, 2017
