Music Feeds Us, led by Artistic Director and violist, Fitz Gary, is a concert series originating in Charlottesville, Virginia designed to promote hunger relief. Their concerts, where audience members are encouraged to make free-will monetary or non-perishable food donations to our partner food banks, have raised over 140,000 meals for the hungry in Virginia. In addition to chamber music benefit concerts, Music Feeds Us has also collaborated with arts organizations, libraries, and schools to promote both classical music and hunger awareness.
The Mission of Music Feeds Us is to unite our community through the power of classical music that champions the eradication of hunger. Motivated by a true collaboration between the performers and audience members, Music Feeds Us hopes to inspire the generosity and good-will of the community to help our neighbors in need.
Through children’s concerts, the quartet is not only educating the next generation on the joys of chamber music and the wonderful repertoire it brings, but also instilling in them the responsibility to fight for the often forgotten humanitarian issues, specifically hunger, which is still a major problem in the United States.The goal is to inspire audiences, through music, to give to their local food bank. By guiding the generation of tomorrow on these issues, we can hopefully make a lasting difference in our community.
2018 marks the seventh season of Music Feeds Us. Their first concert this year will take place on May 13th, at 7 PM at Westminster Presbyterian Church with a program of string quartets by Haydn, Caroline Shaw, and Tchaikovsky. Returning guest artists joining Mr. Gary on stage are Jinjoo Cho, winner of the 2014 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis; Eric Wong, violist of the Cavani String Quartet in residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music; and NYC based cellist Madeline Fayette, a multifaceted performer, with equal fortitude both on the concert stage and as musical pedagogue and ambassador. Our goal for 2018 is to exceed a cumulative 200,000 meals.
