The Score | Concerts for Peace and Unity

The city of Chicago has seen a spike in crime in the past few years, and in response musicians joined together for a June 11 “Concert for Peace” to raise funds for programs benefiting at-risk young people most likely to be involved in acts of violence. Yo-Yo Ma and musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and the Chicago Children’s Choir performed music meant to inspire a more peaceful Chicago. The 75-minute concert, produced by the Chicago Symphony’s Negaunee Music Institute, ranged from Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man to Ellington’s “Come Sunday,” Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag,” and the inspirational song “You Raise Me Up.” The event took place at St. Sabina, a church located in a South Side neighborhood particularly affected by the violence. The concert raised more than $70,000, for St. Sabina’s anti-violence and “Strong Futures” employment programs. At the concert, Yo-Yo Ma said, “I’ve been in tears all afternoon…. Words and sounds mean a lot when we take action.” The same month in New York, departing New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert capped his tenure with a different sort of community-building event, the “Concert for Unity,” for which musicians from orchestras in nineteen countries were invited to participate, among them Australia, China, Cuba, France, Iran, Iraq, Israel, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.