MUSIC

Students in Rice University's Shepherd School of Music are hosting a benefit concert for the Japanese RedCross at 8 p.m. April 4 on campus to raise funds to help the people of Japan recover from the earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear crisis.

No tickets are required for Dear Japan – with Love, 2011, but donations will be collected at the door before and after the concert and during intermission. The concert will be held at Stude Concert Hall in Alice Pratt Brown Hall, 6100 Main St.

Students and faculty from the Shepherd School, along with members of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, will perform works by Mozart, Bach, Debussy, Brahms, Takemitsu, Rachmaninoff and Toshi Ichiyanagi.

The concert was conceived and will be produced by Makiko Hirata and Maiko Sasaki, two Shepherd School doctoral students from Japan. They both have family and friends currently living there.

"We wanted to do whatever we could do to help, and music is what we do best," said Hirata, a pianist. "Music is a universal language. It is beyond any differences we may have as people in culture, language or even the time period that we live in. In a time of crisis especially, we need to remind ourselves of qualities we share as human beings."

Hirata and Sasaki hope that in addition to raising money, the relief concert will raise awareness that Japan is continuing to struggle with aftershocks, unstable nuclear power plants, the scarcity of electricity and damage from the initial earthquake and tsunami.

"Public and media interest might wane, but the people of Japan haven't yet recovered from this disaster," said Sasaki, a clarinetist. "By gathering together around beautiful music, we want our audience and musicians to share time and space together to send our good wishes, as well as funds, to Japan."

Donations will be collected by the Japanese Association of Greater Houston.

"We are so grateful for the support of the Shepherd School as we put this event together," Hirata said. "We are also so appreciative of the assistance given to us by the Japanese Association of Greater Houston and the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra."

The concert lineup is:

J.S. Bach's "Bist du Bei Mir, BWV 508"

Toru Takemitsu's "Itinerant"

Debussy's "Deux Romances"

Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise"

Brahms' "Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 60"

Toshi Ichiyanagi's "Trio Webster"

Mozart’s "Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat Major, K. 595"

The first six selections will be performed by Hirata, Sasaki and faculty of the Shepherd School of Music. The Mozart concerto will be performed by internationally renowned concert pianist and Shepherd School Professor of Piano Jon Kimura Parker, members of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra and students of the Shepherd School.

The concert is just one of the relief efforts taking place at Rice University. At 7 p.m. April 13, Rice students and faculty will gather on campus in Keck Hall, Room 100, for "Makeruna Japan: Rice is With You," a panel discussion and fundraiser designed to raise awareness of the crisis in Japan and money for the Japanese Red Cross Society. The proceeds from a recent boba tea sale by the Japanese Association of Students also went to the society.

Sasaki also created a website, www.helpjapan-houston.org,  to promote other musical and artistic fundraising efforts for Japanese disaster relief, including a mini-concert from 1 to 4 p.m. April 2 in the Houston Galleria near Gigi's Asian Bistro.