Westborough – For the third consecutive year, Westborough resident and soprano Karen Amlaw will join a wonderful cast of musicians in Music to Cure MS, an annual benefit concert of opera, songs, and chamber music to support the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis. The event is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 28, from 3 to 5 p.m., at Park Avenue Congregational Church in Arlington.
Tickets for the benefit concert can be purchased in advance for $20 or at the door for $25 ($10 for MSers, students, MIT staff, and elders). A raffle will be held at intermission and refreshments will be sold to further support the cause. Those who wish to support the efforts of Amlaw and her fellow musicians, but are unable to attend this benefit will find a link to the Cure MS fundraising page at www.karenamlaw.com.
Music to Cure MS is the brain child of Marion Leeds Carroll, a former opera singer and stage director who was diagnosed with MS in 1988. Carroll heard about the Accelerated Cure Project in 2002 and decided to use her own skill-set to bring opportunities to her own world: classical music. The first fundraising concerts she organized were called “Sing to Cure MS,” but it soon became clear that musicians other than singers were eager to take part and thus the broader name was adopted.
Now in its 10th year, this year's program is planned to include selections spanning from the operatic repertoire, including Bizet's Carmen, Dvo?ák's Rusalka, Puccini's La Bohème, Handel's Giulio Cesare, Mozart's Così fan tutte, Boito's Mefistofele, Offenbach's Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Gounod's Faust and Roméo et Juliette and Verdi's Aida and Rigoletto) to works by Britten, Monquet, Debussy, Fauré, and Vaughan Williams to Cole Porter's I love Paris and Johnton & Burke's Pennies from Heaven, as well as a world premiere of Pong, a flute duet by James Ricci.
This year's performers include sopranos Karen Amlaw, Sangeetha Vandeyar Appavoo, Marion Leeds Carroll, Laura Hansen, Julie Poole Martini, Sara Michale Smith, Kimberly States, Sonya Taaffe, Janine Waneé, and Megan Welker; mezzo-sopranos Sophie Michaux and Amanda Sindel-Keswick; flautists Mies Boet, Willemien Insinger and Elke Jahns; violinist Jagan-Nath Khalsa; and accompanists Joseph Turbessi, Joseph Reid, and Daniel Padgett. Lyman Opie will return as the Master of Ceremonies for the program.
Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to curing MS by determining its causes. For more information, call 781-487-0008 or visit www.acceleratedcure.org.
