18/06/2014
Essex Chamber Music Players Concert to Benefit Dana Farber in Memory of Joni A. Finegold, Sunday, June 22, 2014, 2 PM, Hartleb Tech Center, Northern Essex Community College, Haverhill, MA 018130
When Michael Finegold lost his daughter Joni Alicia Finegold to cancer in 2012 he found solace in what he knew best – music. The former Northern Essex Community College music professor and founder and artistic director of the Essex Chamber Music Players in residence at NECC, is sharing the pieces he created, some based on poems written by his late daughter, during a concert to benefit the Dana Farber Cancer Institute on Sunday, June 22, at 2 p.m.
The performance will be held in the Hartleb Tech Center on Northern Essex’s Haverhill campus, 100 Elliott St. Tickets are $25. This event, which is open to the public, will showcase world-famous musicians.
The concert will feature clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and violinist Andrew Kohji Taylor, joined by soprano Adriana Repetto, cellists Emmanuel Feldman, Timothy Roberts, Patrick Owen, pianists Lois Shapiro, David Pihl, Stephen James and flutist Michael Finegold.
Broadway stars Jenny Powers, an Andover native, and her husband Matt Cavenaugh will perform Broadway selections. Pianist Robert “Bob” Lague, former choral and musical director of Andover High School will accompany them.
The program will premiere five works written in memory of Joni Finegold, who died in 2012 of lung cancer at age 42. She left two children, then ages 6 and 11, as well as her husband and family.
The premiere works are “Of Memories…Of Love: Summer 1978” by Elliott M. McKinley; “Lament for Joni” and “Making Sense of It All - Reflections on Cancer” (based on poems by Joni Finegold) both by Michael Finegold; “It’s Time to Let Go” (poem by Diana Finegold) by William Thomas McKinley; and “Warm Summer Sun” by Peter R. Farmer (poem by Robert Richardson)
Lillian Finegold-Sachs, Joni’s daughter, will sing “Mothers”, which she composed.
Michael Finegold noted that “the concert, besides being a memorial-benefit, provides insight into the minds of people with cancer.” He added that many of the performers and composers knew Joni.
All the proceeds will go to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The performers are donating their services. A seven-foot Schimmel concert grand piano is being donated for the concert performance by Darrell’s Music Hall in Nashua, NH.
Additional contributions are welcomed and can be made at the concert, online or by check. For additional information, go to www.ecmp.org.
Essex Chamber Music Players’ (“ECMP”) motto is Music for the Twenty-first Century: Treasures of the Past, New Music Premieres.Preserving Local Cultural History Through Music is a special project.
