JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra will offer a free concert available online as part of a virtual fundraising gala to help overcome losses due to COVID-19.
Academy Award-winning actress Helen Mirren will host the event, which takes place at 1 p.m. CST on Sunday, June 28. Registration is required to receive the link.
The program includes short performances by the orchestra’s new conductor, Lahav Shani, orchestra musicians and friends of the orchestra including Pinchas Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth, Yefim Bronfman, Itzhak Perlman, Evgeny Kissin, András Schiff, Gil Shaham, Chen Reiss and Martin Frost.
“By making our virtual gala free and available everywhere, we hope to bring healing to those who need it, as well as share feelings of unity courtesy of classical music and the IPO,” Danielle Ames Spivak, executive director of the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, said in a statement.
The orchestra’s concert hall has remained silent since the start of the coronavirus pandemic some three months ago. Israel is set to open up cultural venues with restrictions next week.