Music for Food Boston is hosting a concert at the New England Conservatory Sunday and will donate the proceeds to The Women’s Lunch Place, a nonprofit that helps women experiencing homelessness or poverty in Boston through services such as providing meals, laundry services and access to showers.
One in 10 people are food insecure in Massachusetts, and the Music for Food Boston concert is a way of using music to tap into that issue, according to Josie Davis, general manager of Music for Food Boston.
Music for Food Boston is a musician-led initiative aimed at raising resources and awareness through fundraising concerts to fight hunger locally.
“I think there’s a need everywhere, but the food and security is certainly a big issue in Massachusetts,” Davis said. “…We found that working with lots of different pantries in Massachusetts and of course around the country, there is a huge need for support, and one dollar that we raise equals three meals for someone in need.”
Davis said Music for Food Boston depends on volunteer musicians who donate 100 percent of their profits from the performances to a local pantry or beneficiary.
“Each year we support about 60 concerts that are organized by students and amateur adults and professional musicians to support local food pantries,” Davis said.
Artistic director Kim Kashkashian, a performing violist and faculty member at NEC, founded the organization in 2010. The Boston branch is the nonprofit’s founding chapter and has designated The Women’s Lunch Place as its core beneficiary, Davis said.
Music for Food Boston hosts four concerts at NEC each year, which has built a strong relationship with the conservatory over the years, Davis said.
“The partnership with the NEC has been long-standing,” Davis said. “ …The New England Conservatory has partnered with us to offer an internship program, and we think of this like a service-learning program.”
Violinist Samuel Andonian will perform Antonin Dvorak’s Terzetto in C Major at the concert Sunday as part of a trio of musicians comprised of NEC students and current interns at Music for Food Boston.
Andonian said he appreciated the work the musicians at the nonprofit are doing.
“It’s able to make a celebration of helping those in need, and I think that’s really great,” he said. “I think it’s wonderful that the musicians are able to give their time, and I know as an intern, I am always so impressed by meeting these artists and their generosity.”
Andonian said he respects Music for Food’s mission to act as a bridge between people wanting to support music and people wanting to support less fortunate members of the community.
“It’s really wonderful to be able to have this opportunity and take all the work that we do and put it to a use that can help someone else and really make a bigger difference,” Andonian said. “I don’t think that direct connection happens with many other organizations.”
He added he will play alongside violist Kevonna Shuford and violinist Abigail Hong, both NEC students, and said he looked forward to performing on Sunday.
“We’re really excited to perform the piece,” Andonian said. “I think it will hopefully bring the audience lots of joy. It’s a very joyous, warm piece, and we hope it will really celebrate the spirit of the event.”
Shuford, a student intern for Music for Food Boston, said Sunday’s concert is the final performance in the core concert series. The general theme for the whole season is “love matters.”
“It’s a unique opportunity for artists to make more local, more tangible, visible impact on the community at large,” Shuford said. “A lot of times, what we do, we can’t really see the full effect of, but this is one way we can literally have an impact on our community.”
Guest violist Kirsten Docter, an associate professor at Oberlin College and Conservatory, said she will perform a sextet with the Verona Quartet, the quartet-in-residence at NEC’s Professional String Quartet Training program, and cellist Merry Peckham, NEC’s chair of the chamber music program.
Docter said she has performed for benefit events in the past, including schools, retirement centers and prison, but has not worked with Music for Food. She said the nonprofit is a wonderful organization and thinks it is “exciting to see how it has taken off in cities across the U.S.”
While food is a necessity for survival, Docter said, music is also an essential aspect of human life.
“Music and just art, in general, is something that defines us as human beings and that we really have that need for beauty and comfort,” Docter said. “And I guess I would add that me being [at Music for Food Boston] came about through friendship, which I also believe is a necessity for us as humans.”
The final piece is a Beethoven wind octet, pairing oboes, clarinets and bassoon, according to Thomas Novak, provost and dean of the college at NEC. The ensemble is comprised of NEC students and faculty pulled together by Novak.
Novak, who recently joined the board of Music for Food Boston after being a full-time NEC administrator for 18 years, said Kashkashian is the reason NEC has been able to work with Music for Food so closely.
“Because of her association with [the nonprofit] and our own belief in it, as well,” Novak said, “we’ve been very enthusiastically supporting the initiative and providing space for her to perform at these concerts.”
Sunday’s concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. in NEC’s Brown Hall. Suggested donations at admission are $30 and $10 for students.
