MACON – “Music for Haiti,” a benefit concert for Haiti relief, will take place Sunday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m. in Newton Chapel on Mercer University’s Macon campus. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $5 with a student ID. Tickets can be purchased and additional donations can be made at the door. Proceeds from the concert will go to the organization Haitian Hope to rebuild the St. Marc’s Church School in Trouin, Haiti, which collapsed in the recent earthquake. The event will include performances by Robert McDuffie, distinguished university professor and international violinist; David Halen, concertmaster, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; Elizabeth Pridgen, G. Leslie Fabian Chair of Music at Mercer; Monty Cole, associate professor of music, and the Mercer Jazz ensemble. In addition to the music, there will be spoken word poetry.
As the horrors of the tragedy which struck Haiti gradually fade from the media and from the minds of citizens around the world, the need for aid of Haiti’s people has hardly diminished. This concert benefits Haitian Hope, an organization which was a presence in Trouin, Haiti, for years before the quake and is now working to rebuild not only homes but also St. Marc’s Church School there. St. Marc’s was in many ways the heart of the community, being a place for anyone to come to worship or to ask for material help and providing many of its children not only education but also their only substantial meal of the day. Rebuilding St. Marc’s is a crucial to helping the people who are left in Trouin rebuild their lives. As Marcia Aldridge from Haitian Hope noted, “the task of starting life over is daunting for any of us who lose everything, but in America we have an infrastructure and a government back-up system. In Haiti, there is no infrastructure; and there is no government assistance. Haitians are looking to us for help. How can we refuse?”
To hear performances by such talented and accomplished artists and at the same time contribute to the renewal of Haiti’s devastated community is a rare opportunity for caring citizens of Middle Georgia.
About Townsend School of Music
Mercer is an accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Music. Mercer’s Townsend School of Music and the Townsend-McAfee Institute Graduate Studies in Church Music offer undergraduate and graduate professional music studies in a comprehensive university environment. The School is nationally recognized for its outstanding faculty, award-winning students, performance ensembles and state-of-the-art facilities and is home to the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings.
About Mercer University
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University enrolls more than 8,000 students in 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies – on major campuses in Macon, Atlanta and Savannah and at three regional academic centers across the state. Mercer is affiliated with two teaching hospitals — Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah and the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, and has educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. The University operates an academic press and a performing arts center in Macon and an engineering research center in Warner Robins. Mercer is the only private university in Georgia to field an NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.
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