Monday, March 12, 2012

Winds for Hope

Yesterday marked the passage of exactly one year since the horrific earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  Billions of dollars of destruction, tens of thousands dead or vanished ... to say nothing of a slow-motion Chernobyl-esque nuclear disaster that remains unresolved.

The disaster was felt deeply here in Seattle.  Our Japanese community is large and active.  On top of that, we live in a region—the Cascadia subduction zone—that is highly susceptible to the same sort of devastating geological calamity that befell Japan.

To honor the anniversary, I attended last night’s Winds for Hope benefit at Benaroya Hall.  The primary purpose of the event was raising money to replace musical instruments lost, damaged, or destroyed on that day.  We were treated to well over three hours of exciting classical and jazz performances by a wide variety of local and national artists.

As part of the event, we were treated to the video of A Song for Japan, a composition for the trombone that has been recorded by virtuosos around the world.  The project is very much in the tradition of Playing for Change, which brought smiles to many a face with their multi-artist international recording of Ben E. King’s 1961 masterpiece Stand By Me. 

For your viewing pleasure, here’s a version of the video that I found on YouTube:

Last night’s concert was sponsored by the Japan-America Society of the State of WA.  Although the benefit concert is now in the past, the need for assistance in the wake of the disaster remains.  So I’m certain the JASSW would be more than happy to accept whatever you can contribute to their efforts.  I’ve made a donation myself, and so too can my readers by clicking here.