Notre Dame Chamber Players to host benefit concert

Author: Mollie Zubek

Chamber Players

The University of Notre Dame Chamber Players will host a concert Wednesday (March 4) to support the South Bend Community School Corporation in an effort to raise money to provide local young musicians with new instruments.

The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Leighton Concert Hall of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $10 for the general public, $8 for faculty and staff, $5 for seniors and $3 for all students. All proceeds of the concert will be donated to purchase musical instruments for South Bend public schools.

To reserve or order tickets, call the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center box office at 574-631-2800 or visit http://performingarts.nd.edu on the Web.

The concert will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of composer and child prodigy Felix Mendelssohn and will feature Notre Dame music faculty members Karen Buranskas, cello; Carolyn Plummer, violin; and John Blacklow, piano. The program will include works by Mozart, Shostakovich and Mendelssohn.

We love music, we love teaching music, and public school programs are the way students start out,” Buranskas said. “I started my career in public schools. I never would have been a musician had I not had that opportunity.”

“It is an outstanding community contribution by Notre Dame’s Music Department to be concerned with the students in our fine arts program,” said Candace Butler, program coordinator for Clay High School, South Bend’s visual and performing arts magnet school. “Many of our students coming through the program cannot afford their own instruments. Putting good instruments in the hands of beginners is a good way to prompt a lasting interest.”

The Notre Dame Chamber Players was formed in 2003 with a mission to perform great chamber works for the Notre Dame and South Bend communities. With the assistance of guest artists, the Chamber Players have included a wide range of chamber compositions by composers of the Classical, Romantic and 20th century in their concerts.

Contact: Noelle Elliott, Department of Music, 574-631-2325, nelliot2@nd.edu