CELEBRITY SERIES OF BOSTON PRESENTS THE BOSTON DEBUT OF
THE AFRICAN CHILDREN’S CHOIR
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11 AT SANDERS THEATRE

(BOSTON)—Celebrity Series of Boston, Martha H. Jones, President and Executive Director, presents the African Children’s Choir on Sunday, November 11 at 3:00 p.m. at Sanders Theatre, Memorial Hall, Harvard University, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge. The performance marks the Boston debut for the choir, comprised of children aged seven to eleven who have lost parents to poverty or disease, and features a mix of African song with popular, gospel, and contemporary music.

The African Children’s Choir engagement is sponsored by Bank of America, and funded in part by the Expeditions program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program, the six New England state arts agencies, and the Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund.

The African Children’s Choir performs throughout the world bringing hope and joy to their audiences while shining a spotlight on the plight of children in Africa. Founded in 1984 by human rights activist Ray Barnett, the choir has appeared at numerous prestigious events and concert halls, including performances for Kofi Annan at the UN General Assembly Hall, with Bobby McFerrin at Royal Albert Hall, with Mariah Carey and Sir Paul McCartney at Live 8 in London, and at Nelson Mandela’s AIDS awareness concert in South Africa. Members of the African Children’s Choir are ambassadors for children in Africa who have become orphans as a result of poverty or disease. Each year, when a new choir is selected, the children from the previous year’s choir return to their homelands to attend school with their studies funded completely by the African Children’s Choir.

Ray Barnett is the founder and president of the African Children's Choir. Under his leadership, the Choir has gained international recognition, and raised millions of dollars to establish schools throughout Africa that serve children who would otherwise not have access to education. Mr. Barnett has also raised significant funds for emergency relief and development programs in the Sudan and Rwanda, and is currently working to do the same for children in South Africa who have been orphaned by AIDS. Mr. Barnett is an ordained Irish minister residing in Canada who has been the subject of two television documentaries and has received numerous awards and honors for his work. These include the prestigious Cross of Nails, awarded by the Coventry Cathedral in England to recognize his widespread efforts to promote peace throughout the world, and the Heart of Gold Award bestowed by the British Broadcasting Company (BBC).

PROGRAM INFORMATION
Sunday, November 11 at 3:00 p.m.
Sanders Theatre
AFRICAN CHILDREN’S CHOIR

Program selections include traditional African song, popular, gospel, and contemporary music.

TICKETING INFORMATION
Tickets, priced at $48, $40, and $30, are available by calling The Harvard Box Office at (617) 496-2222 Tuesday-Sunday Noon-6:00 p.m., or online at www.celebrityseries.org, or at The Harvard Box Office, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge.


About Celebrity Series of Boston
Celebrity Series of Boston is New England's leading presenter of music, dance, and the performing arts from around the world. Founded in 1938, the Series incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation in 1989. Each year, the Celebrity Series brings to Boston's major concert halls performances by instrumental and vocal soloists, symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, dance companies, jazz and popular music performers, folk and ethnic performance groups, and other performing artists. The Celebrity Series' Arts, Education and Community program was initiated in 1984. The program reaches thousands of students annually in Boston area schools and communities. The program includes the award-winning AileyCamp Boston, a six-week summer dance program for Boston middle school students, and ACT 2, an after-school initiative for former participants of AileyCamp Boston. For more information on Celebrity Series of Boston, call (617) 482-2595 or visit us online at www.celebrityseries.org.

The Celebrity Series receives major annual support from two anonymous donors; The Little Family Foundation; The Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation; Bank of America; The Linde Family Foundation; Tufts Health Plan; Talbots Charitable Foundation; Foley & Lardner LLP; Charlesbank Capital Partners; Comcast; Morgan Stanley; BDO Seidman; PTC; Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Foundation; Steven and Joan Belkin Foundation; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; The Consolate General of Canada; The Collings Foundation; The Esther B. Kahn Charitable Foundation; The Red Sox Foundation; Massachusetts Cultural Council; National Endowment for the Arts; New England Foundation for the Arts; Catherine and Paul Buttenwieser Foundation; The Harris A. Berman and Ruth E. Nemzoff Family Foundation; Amy and Joshua Boger; DeMoulas Foundation; Margaret Eagle and Eli Rapaport; Kathleen and Steven Haley; Cerise and Charles Jacobs; Paul L. King; Jann E. Leeming and Arthur D. Little; Paul F. and Barbara A. Levy; Frank and Eleanor Pao; Spring Sirkin and Arthur Frank; Dorothy and Stephen Weber; Nancy Richmond Winsten and Dr. Joseph Winsten; Charles O. Wood, III and Miriam M. Wood; Ellen and Arnold Zetcher.

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