Thursday, November 1, 2012

Symphonic Relief for Haiti II: a community-wide collaboration

Symphonic Relief for Haiti II, a concert on November 4, 2012 at Arlington Street Church at 3:00 p.m. in partnership with Partners In Health

On January 10, 2010, Haiti was rocked by a massive earthquake. The death toll was estimated to be nearly 250,000. Three weeks later, the Longwood Symphony Orchestra coordinated a concert of healing to raise funds for Partners In Health and to bring the Haitian community together in solidarity with Boston’s musical community. “Symphonic Relief for Haiti” was a success on many levels: it united 200 musicians, and was attended by 500 people, including members of Boston’s Haitian diaspora, raising $90,000 for Partners In Health. 

One of the outgrowths of “Symphonic Relief for Haiti” was the development of a partnership among several organizations committed to improving healthcare in Haiti: Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Partners In Health, Partners HealthCare International, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Institute for Human Centered Design, and the Longwood Symphony Orchestra. Looking beyond the immediate disaster relief, these organizations were concerned about the long-term care that many of the survivors would require, including intensive rehabilitative care for the hundreds of newly disabled victims of the earthquake. 

To address this problem, the group approached Shepley Bulfinch Architects, to design a new rehabilitation and training center. As a result of this pro bono partnership, plans were made to establish:

CERE, the Center for Excellence in Rehabilitation and Education
Partners In Health

The Center for Excellence in Rehabilitation and Education (CERE) is planned as part of the PIH Hospital and Medical School in Mirebalais, Haiti.

IT WILL … be a catalyst in providing immediate and long-term delivery of rehabilitation services in Haiti while dignifying and normalizing the lives of people with disabilities.

IT WILL … establish new national standards for rehabilitative care in a country where ten percent of the population has some form of physical disability, a figure that spiked significantly following the January 2010 earthquake.

IT WILL … build capacity for care by training rehabilitation specialists, technicians, community health workers, and disability advocates.  

The project to date has been developed by Partners In Health (PIH)/Zanmi Lasante (ZL) with a network of partner organizations whose pro bono collaboration represents the fruit of the partnership model from which Partners In Health takes its name.

The Concert
Arlington Street Church in Boston has had a long history of charity in the community, including work in Haiti and work with Partners In Health. 

On November 4, 2012, Arlington Street Church will host the Longwood Symphony Orchestra to present Symphonic Relief for Haiti II, a concert led by LSO Music Director Ronny Feldman, that brings together musicians committed to healing the community through music. Each of the soloists has a direct connection to medicine, healing, Haiti, or rehabilitation. The concert will feature Vivaldi's Four Seasons, the Boston premiere of the Concertino for Clarinet and Orchestra by Haitian composer/conductor Julio Racine and the rarely heard String Symphony in C, No. 9 by the 14 year old Felix Mendelssohn.

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
       Spring:   Sherman Jia
    Summer:   Sue-Jonnathane Celestin
          Fall:   Adrian Anantawan
     Winter :   Nicholas Kitchen 

Racine: Concertino for Clarinet and Orchestra (dedicated to Jorge Montilla)
                  Jorge Montilla, clarinet
Mendelssohn:  String Symphony in C, No. 9

Following the concert, the audience will have the opportunity to meet the musicians, learn more about the Rehabilitation Center and meet leaders from Arlington Street Church, Partners In Health and Longwood Symphony Orchestra.

For more information on tickets or to support the program,  please click here.