Presented by composer and Danbury native Paul Frucht as a benefit for Sandy Hook Promise, the event is a nationwide series of concerts and live events to raise awareness of the approximately 12,000 Americans who are murdered by a firearm each year and the more than 20,000 who die from firearm suicides and accidental shootings.
Sept. 25 is the day designated by Congress in Remembrance of Murder Victims. The concert at Danbury Music Centre, which will be performed by recent graduates of the Juilliard School, will realize the mission of Sandy Hook Promise through music.
Musical selections will reflect the values of Sandy Hook Promise’s mission through their musical character, history of community engagement, and unique ties to the local community.
Frucht is an award-winning composer who is also the director of the Danbury Chamber Music Intensive and Artist Concert Series at the Danbury Music Centre.
"Dawn," a recent work of his written in memory of Dawn Hochsprung and the other 25 victims of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, has been performed across the U.S. by the Atlantic Music Festival Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Asian American New Music Institute, Chelsea Symphony, musicians of the Ridgefield Symphony, and the Sherman Chamber Ensemble.
Sandy Hook Promise is a national, nonprofit organization based in Newtown, that is led by several family members whose loved ones were killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, that claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six educators.
Their mission is focused on preventing gun violence (and all violence) before it happens by educating and mobilizing parents, schools and communities on mental health and wellness programs that identify, intervene and help at-risk individuals. They are a moderate, above-the-politics organization that supports sensible non-policy and policy solutions that protect children and prevent gun violence.
The concert is free with a suggested donation of $15. Proceeds will go to Sandy Hook Promise.
The event begins at 3 p.m. in the Marion Anderson Recital Hall at the Danbury Music Centre, 256 Main St.,
To learn more, visit www.sandyhookpromise.org.
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