For the second year in a row, NAC Orchestra Concertmaster Yosuke Kawasaki and Associate Concertmaster Jessica Linnebach will stage a benefit chamber music concert and auction. The concert takes place on Friday May 4, 2012 at MacKay United Church, 39 Dufferin Road (at MacKay St.) in Ottawa. The silent auction begins at 7:15 p.m. and the concert – hosted by writer/broadcaster Eric Friesen – starts at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $20 and are available at the door or in advance by calling 613 421-0686 or by e-mailing benefit.chambermusic@gmail.com

Yosuke Kawasaki and Jessica Linnebach, partners onstage and off, will perform an exquisite evening of chamber music, including works by Haydn, Brahms and Moszkowski. The couple will be joined by Canadian pianist Vadim Serebryany and New York-based cellist Wolfram Koessel, of the American String Quartet. Kawasaki and the two guest musicians are part of Trio+, a group they formed in 2005.

The silent auction features wonderful prizes, such as tickets to 2012-2013 NAC events, autographed CDs of musicians from the NAC Orchestra, gift certificates to the region’s finest restaurants and establishments, one-of-a-kind pieces of art by local up-and-coming artists and tickets to next season’s Senators games as well as a jersey autographed by Ottawa Senators defenseman Chris Phillips.

All proceeds from this fund-raising event will be donated to the Ottawa Hospital Foundation to support Soft Tissue Sarcoma clinical trials. Yosuke Kawasaki says, “Today, almost everyone knows someone who is living with a diagnosis of cancer. Two years ago, Jessica's mother, Jennifer, received such a diagnosis from the oncology team at the Cancer Center of the Ottawa Hospital. Determined to help in any way we could, Jessica, a group of family and friends and I collaborated with Jennifer’s medical oncologist, Dr. Shailendra Verma, and the Ottawa Hospital Foundation to produce an event that raised $7621 last year. The concert and auction in 2011 was such a success that we are pleased to be able to do something similar this year. The funds raised are designated to improve cancer treatment protocols.”

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Information:
Gerald Morris
Communications Officer, NAC Music
613-947-7000, ext. 335
[e-mail]  gerald.morris@nac-cna.ca