An unprecedented collaboration of three Northeast Ohio music ensembles performs Friday evening (September 8) to help victims of recent weather disasters in Texas and Florida. Over eighty local musicians were quickly assembled to support the relief effort.
Students from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music started their rehearsals Wednesday night. Organizer Henry Peyrebrune says there was no problem in getting musicians to sign-on for the Friday night concert.
"And we reached out to the Orchestra management to see if we could use Severance Hall," he adds. "They were very enthusiastic. Everything came together in --- I don't know ---a day, two days tops."
Peyrebrune is a bassist with the Cleveland Orchestra and executive director of another Oberlin-based ensemble, Credo. He says this is the first time that performers from the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Institute of Music and Oberlin have worked together on one project.
"And it's really a testament - in a time when our country is fairly divided - when faced with real need, people will come together and help each other. And it's really heartening to see that."
The "Help After Harvey" concert was organized in the wake of the recent Texas flooding, but organizers note that it will also support coming Red Cross relief efforts in connection with Hurricane Irma.
