BRUNSWICK
Brunswick resident John Dennen, a native of South Africa, has organized a concert to benefit famine and drought relief in the Horn of Africa.
Dennen, who will perform, has enlisted a number of other local musicians for the show, which is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Feb. 10 at the Orion Performing Arts Center at Mt. Ararat Middle School in Topsham.
“When the United Nations issued in mid-December its ‘humanitarian appeal’ to raise $1.5 billion worldwide to feed and shelter up to 4 million Somalis — many of whom have fled that war-torn country into the equally drought-affected countries of Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Uganda — Dennen instinctively knew just what to do,” a release announcing the concert states. “He’d organize a benefit concert, featuring some of Mid-coast Maine’s talented songwriters and musicians, to raise money for the relief effort.”
“It wasn’t a hard sell,” Dennen said in the release, noting that he received positive responses from several local Rotary clubs and Mt. Ararat High School’s Interact Club and National Honors Society, which have signed on as cosponsors. “We already have in hand $6,500 from the Rotary clubs. It’s a testament to the extraordinary generosity of Mainers.”
Tickets cost $12 for adults, or $6 for students and senior citizens. They’ll be available beforehand at Indrani’s in the Tontine Mall and Gulf of Maine Books on Maine Street in Brunswick, but also can be purchased at the door on the night of the performance.
Featured performers include Dennen, Jud Caswell, David Bullard and a new group organized by Bullard, the SoundWaVz Jazz Band.
Dennen, who acquired his musical chops 45 years ago playing with black musicians during South Africa’s apartheid era, plans to perform a set featuring “Memory Boxes,” the song he wrote for AIDS orphans in his native country.
Dennen is still lining up other musicians for Somali relief benefit concert. He figures each act will perform a 20-minute set.
For more information about the International Rotary Foundation’s “Horn of Africa Famine and Refugee Relief Fund,” go online to www.rotary.org.
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