Give Them Music

Friends of the Mathieson School, Inc. Presents

Friday, August 25, 2017  6:30 pm, The Center at Eagle Hill School, Hardwick, MA

Tickets: Dinner + Concert=$50   ::   Concert Only=$30

To purchase: http://www.thecenterateaglehill.org/  or 413-477-6746

 

HARDWICK, MA, 2017-Aug-02 — /EPR Network/ — On Friday, August 25 at 6:30 pm, the Friends of the Mathieson School will present Give Them Music, a concert in memory of baritone Donald Lee Boothman, to benefit the Mathieson Music School (MMS) of Kolkata, India. International cellist and music educator Anup Kumar Biswas, founder and director of the Mathieson Music School, will lead a broad range of professional musicians through an eclectic program including Western classical music, Broadway show tunes, jazz, Indian classical and folk music, rock n’ roll and even a little country music.

The concert will commemorate baritone and long-time MMS supporter Donald Lee Boothman, who died of cancer on July 6, 2016. Boothman was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. Following formal education at Princeton University and Oberlin College, he joined the United States Air Force Band and Singing Sergeants as soloist and announcer. A singer, teacher, and musical commentator, he performed opera, oratorio and concerts throughout the United States Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. He moved to Hardwick, Massachusetts in 1983 and married his wife Kaye in 1987. He met Biswas 17 years ago, when the cellist came to the U.S. to prepare for a concert at Carnegie Hall. The two began performing together, and for many years, Don and Kaye traveled to England and Wales annually to raise funds for MMS. He became a patron “uncle” to the school and its very special students.

Each August, Boothman would bring together talented musicians from Western Massachusetts to give fundraising concerts for MMS. Dr. Peter J. (PJ) McDonald, headmaster of Eagle Hill School (EHS), has long supported these fundraising efforts by sponsoring concerts on the school’s Hardwick campus. This year, Eagle Hill School is entering into a partnership with the Mathieson Music School, bringing together students from these two unique centers of learning, in a musical and cultural exchange that will offer unprecedented educational opportunities to both institutions. Eagle Hill School is sponsoring this concert as a first step in this exchange, reaching out to help MMS raise funds to build new classroom and dormitory buildings at its Kolkata campus.

The performance will feature Anup Kumar Biswas (cello) and his two children, Geetanjali (vocals, cello) and Satyajit (cello, mridangam), along with seven U.S. musicians who are donating their talents: Clifton “Jerry” Noble, Jr. (piano & guitar), Kara Noble (bass), Bob Sparkman (clarinet), Peter Shea (baritone), Jennifer Fijal (mezzo-soprano), Danny Brevik (baritone), and Ben Peterson (cello). They will present a diverse program including classic Broadway love songs such as Some Enchanted Evening and If I Loved You; traditional jazz standards like Honeysuckle Rose and Night and Day; original compositions including Biswas’s rock-and-raga inspired improvisation, Celebration; showstoppers by Sousa and Paganini and a country tribute to our Friends with Tractors.

Tickets are available through the box office of The Center at Eagle Hill School beginning on August 1, 2017. They can be purchased online at The Center’s website at http://www.thecenterateaglehill.org/ or by calling 413-477-6746. Tickets including the dinner must be purchased no later than Friday, August 18, 2017.

 

Donations to the Mathieson Music School can be made online at http://friendsofthemathiesonschool.org/donate/

 

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