Camarata to host fall fund-raiser next week

Nonprofit music organization Camarata Music Company will be holding its annual fall fund-raiser next week to help fund its activities.

Held in partnership with the Korea Business Leaders Alliance, the “Fall into Music” event will feature performances from the Camarata Chamber Singers, an auditioned choir of 27 singers, a performance from gayageum player Jocelyn Clark and the Camarata Jazz Duo.

“It’s one of our largest events of the year. It goes a long way to help out the organization,” said CMC director Ryan Goessl.

Goessl said the organization had grown in leaps and bounds over the last year.

“We started the children’s choir, which has been immensely successful. At any given time we have between 30 and 40 kids,” he said.

“We also have over 100 members of the Chorale for the ‘Messiah’ concert coming up in December.”

The money raised will help fund the organization’s concerts and outreach program.

As well as the chamber choir, the company also runs the CMC Chorale, a singing group open to anyone, which performs four big concerts a year. The choir is led in English but has a multinational flavor with more than 60 nationalities having been represented since its inception in 2008.

Upcoming performances include the Chamber Singers’ year-end concert at International Lutheran Church in Seoul on Nov. 14, and the Chorale’s main concert of the year, Handel’s “Messiah,” on Dec. 12 at Chungdong First Methodist Church in central Seoul.

CMC also has an outreach program, in which choir members volunteer and perform at hospitals, orphanages, low-income centers and other places. Performances are often accompanied by games, food and activities.

This year, the group also broadened its activities to involve a children’s choir, which now has dozens of members and performed its first concert in May.

The “Fall into Music” fund-raiser runs from 7 p.m. at the Seoul Grand Hyatt Hotel on Oct. 23.

As well as music, there will be a raffle and a live auction. Items on the block include business-class and economy-class tickets to North America and Europe, and luxury hotel accommodation.

Food will be provided through a standing buffet with complimentary wine, designed to allow people to mingle and network at the event.

Tickets are 95,000 won at the door or for 85,000 won in advance, bookable by bank transfer.

For more information, visit camaratamusic.com or email info@camaratamusic.com.

By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)