Mattahunt Center to host March 5 classical performance

Non-profit organization musiConnects will relocate a “Play Me, I’m Yours” street piano to the Mattahunt BCYF Community Center this month where it will be available to all of the youth and families who use the center. The community piano – painted by award-winning Mattapan artist Marjorie Saintil-Belizaire – is newly repaired and re-tuned and will be a focal point of musiConnects upcoming community concert.

On Tues., March 5 at 6:30 p.m., the fourth and final event in a classical performance series will be staged at the Center, supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Past performances included a student workshop at Lena Park Community Center in November, a community concert in Dorchester’s Lena Park CDC Community Room in December, and a community concert at the Mattapan Post Office in January.

The March 5 show will feature musiConnects’ resident musicians Betsy Hinkle and Joshua Addison, violins, Jason Amos, viola, Francesa McNeeley, cello and Joy Cline Phinney, piano, who will perform as an ensemble with music for piano and strings by Shostakovich, Dvorak, and Brahms. A student chamber group – some from musiConnects “Harmony Strings,” an orchestra-style project part of a residency program focused on students’ creative agency – will join them on stage.

“A hallmark of our approach is that teachers are professional chamber musicians who also perform publicly in students’ neighborhoods, modeling the relationship of artist to community,” said Nancy Galluzzo, executive director of musiConnects. “Our goal for the event is for the community to come together in a familial environment for a free live performance by students and professional musicians who are committed to building community through music.”

MusiConnects currently offers no-to-low cost violin, viola and cello lessons to youth in Mattapan and Dorchester. They currently run the program at Lena Park Community Center, The Mattahunt BCYF Community Center, Mattapan Elementary School and KIPP Mattapan.

For more information, visit musiconnects.org. The Mattahunt BCYF Community Center is located at 100 Hebron St., Mattapan.


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