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Vasi, Cleopatra, and Peter came to Holy Trinity for Vespers back in May or June and told us about their benefit concert for the Internairtonal Orthodox Christian Charities, Inc. (IOCC). I promised that I will attend.I had no idea what a treat that was in store for me and the rest of us who attended.
Of course I took plenty of photographs. As usually, I used two cameras. I used flash with the 70-300mm lens and the other camera, which normally has the 28-80mm lens, had the 50mm f/1.8 lens and as much as possible, I took photos without flash during the performances. Most of the photographs came out at least decently, but some were too blurry and I discarded those. Because I'm using digital, I was able to adjust the shutter speed on the fly. I kept the lens wide open the whole evening. I still have to learn how to do what I was doing.
The concert was entitled "A Music Gift of Love" and it was held at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation at their facilities across the street from the temple. Various photographs that I'd like to share on the Web.
IOCC was established by the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Ameicas (SCOBA) as the official humanitarian agency of Orthodox Christians to work in cooperation with the Orthodox Churches worldwide.
The mission of IOCC is to respond to the call of our Lord Jesus Christ, to minister to those who are suffering and are in need throughout the world, sharing with them God's gift of food, shelter, economic self-sufficiency and hope. Assistance is provided solely on the basis of need.
Chrysanthe Loizos shared with us information about IOCC. IOCC has their own Rs: Respond, Rebuild, Renew. We find Christ in every human being, and we don't discriinate. IOCC just received a $400,000 grant for Iran. They will distribute 60 tons of aid in Greece. They ave a matching grant program for Koscovo.
The first music piece was Pastorale, written by Garth Ogle who played it for us. Norm Hogeland said that the song You Say the Nicest Things has been in existence for a long time. Eric Epstein has been composing his own songs since he was a child.
Robert Bruno and Cleopatra Nacopoulos have been composing, she on piano and he on the guitar. This is the first time that they composed together. They perfomred Uncertain World.
Robert Hitz is a piano teacher at Peabody and he improves quite frequently. He asked people for ideas and then he composes on the spot. The ideas from the audience this evening was on the beach in Romania and a storm coming. Also having a small cup of coffee was suggested.
Elizabeth Kanner wrote the song Stay which she sang for us this evening. She was followed by Joshua Wolfe who has been composing since he was in grade school. Joshua performed Midnight Fantasie. Finally before intermission we had Felicia Clark. The program said Toccatta in A but that was not what she performed. Felicia just graduated from the UMBC with a degree in Biology.
We then had an intermission and then a video. In the video we heard "We believe in the potential of every person." Since their establishment in 1992, IOCC has delivered over $4 billion in aid. This is mainly from the "widow's mite." They leverage from government funding and foundations. For every $1 received, nearly $7 is leveraged. They have been in 33 countries around the world.
Cleopatra Nacopoulos has been playing the piano since she was a child and more recently she has been composing her own pieces. She performed for us In Your Name. She was followed by Sean Collins who played Shades of Meaning. Then we heard Robert Bruno On Our Way on the guitar. The piece was written to remind him of one of his dearest friends. Randy Hayes performed Changes followed by Garth Ogle who performed Along the Way and then Joshua Mills performed Suite No. 3 for Violoncello: IV. Sarbande by J. S. Bach. Finally Robert Hitz performed Caravanserai and dedicated it to the late Fr. Constantine Monios, the former dean of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation. He said that a safe haven is what IOCC provides.
Executive Director and CEO Constantine M. (Dean) Triantafilou said that all we do is for the glory of God. A woman in the crowd said that the amount of youth that we have here are so richly talented. Everybody was impressed by the performance of these young people.
There will be another concert on 12 August 2008 in Columbia.
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