April 25, 2011

Concert will benefit earthquake/tsunami victims

by Andrea Hahn

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Musicians from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and the Carbondale community will present “Music Can Unite People,” a concert to benefit victims of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake in Japan.

The concert is set for 7 p.m. on April 30 at the Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship on Parrish Lane. There is no set ticket price but donations will go to the American Red Cross-Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Relief Fund.

Yuko Kato, assistant professor of piano, is one of the event organizers. She noted that a month after the earthquake, the Tohoku area of Japan reports 27,800 dead and missing people, and still has approximately 153,000 people living in evacuation centers.

Kato said members of the Carbondale Community High School Japanese Society will contribute 1,000 origami paper cranes on which donors may write a personal message to be sent to earthquake survivors. The cranes will be available at 6:30 p.m.

Here is a list of musicians participating in the benefit concert:

• Michael Barta, violin, SIUC

• Chris Combest, tuba, SIUC

• Alex Francois, cello, SIUC student

• Yuko Kato, piano, SIUC

• Junghwa Lee, piano, SIUC

• Eric Mandat, clarinet, SIUC

• Aurélien Pétillot, viola, SIUC

• Elizabeth Pétillot, voice, community member

• Reiko Schoen, piano, community member

• Peder Sill, piano, SIUC student

• Joseph Steinbock, piano, community member

• Paul Transue, piano, SIUC

• Sally Wang, piano, community member

• Michael Wheatley, violin, SIUC student

• Students of Ricky Snowman, Ruiju Shen and Reiko Schoen

For more information, contact the concert organizers: Yuko Kato, yukokato@siu.edu, or Reiko Schoen, rekochama@frontier.com.