Love Will Be There: A Concert to Benefit Family Promise

VISIT THE ART AUCTION SITE HERE

About the Art Auction:

The art can be viewed after the first week of April - please come back to this site for the link.

Bidding begins on April 15, 2022, at 2:00 PM. All bids and donations will be processed directly to Family Promise North Shore Boston. A portion of your donation will be tax deductible as Family Promise is a 501c3 non-profit. Some of the proceeds will go directly to the artist who generously donated their time, skill, and artwork.

You will have the opportunity to view the art in-person at Shalin Liu during the evening of April 20, 2022. You do NOT have to be present to win. Bidding will be done online via the Art Action website (accessible on this page after the first week of April).

Bidding will continue throughout the evening and will close promptly after the concert at 9:00 PM.

You will be notified electronically if you have won and will have the option to change your payment method at that time.

Thank you for supporting Family Promise North Shore Boston!

Event Details:

Wednesday, April 20, 2022. 7-9:30pm
Shalin Liu Performance Center
37 Main St, Rockport, MA 01966

7:00 PM - 8:00 PM: Dessert Reception and Silent Art Auction viewing (bidding ends at 9:00 PM)
8:15 PM - 9:30 PM: Live Concert with Thom Smoker and Friends

Can’t attend in person? No problem. A Live Streaming Option will be available for the concert, AND you can still participate in the Art Auction! Just choose that when you look at the ticketing options.

About Thom:

Thomas Smoker earned a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from The Boston Conservatory, as well as Bachelor of Science degree in Bible/Music Ministries from Lancaster Bible College, Lancaster, PA. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Voice at Berklee College of Music, as well as an adjunct faculty member at Endicott College, where he directs the Constellation Interfaith Music Ensemble and teaches performing arts classes. Thomas has over 15 years of experience in teaching, coaching, directing, leading workshops and symposiums, and is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the A cappella Educators Association (AEA), as well as the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). Previously, Thomas was the Vocal Music Teacher at the Pingree School. He regularly music directs, composes and arranges for collegiate, community and high school musicals, concerts and special events. Thomas also maintains a healthy performance career in opera, oratorio, musical theater, and solo concerts as he is often sought after throughout New England and Mid- Atlantic, and has even gotten to sing back up for Josh Groban at the TD Garden and Tanglewood.

About the Arrangers:

Nathan Cohen is a multi-instrumentalist performer, composer, and conductor. Cohen is fluent in classical orchestral and chamber music, but he also appears with multiple bands across many genres. In partnership with his neo-soul cabaret band What Time Is It, Mr. Fox?, Cohen co-created Medusa: Reclaiming the Myth, a multi-media musical which played to sold-out audiences in a 2019 run in the Charles Hayden Planetarium at the Boston Museum of Science. The piece earned a 2021 Live Arts Boston grant from the Boston Foundation and is currently in development toward a full-length staged production of the show (visit www.medusareclaimed.com for more information). Cohen is the director of the Rockport Public Schools Orchestra and Chamber Music programs as well as the Endicott College Chamber Ensemble in Beverly, MA. An accomplished studio musician, Cohen has recorded on numerous projects including the Irma Thomas Grammy-nominated album ‘Simply Grand.’ An avid traveler and lover of music from all over the globe, Cohen has studied music informally on remote Pacific Islands, in India, and Turkey, to name a few favorites. With music degrees from Macalester College and Columbia University and formal studies at the Kodaly Institute of Music in Hungary, the University of Ghana in Accra, and Berklee College of Music in Boston, Cohen brings a strong streak of academic and classical training to his desire (and ability, he hopes) to rock out.

Bill Cutter is Director of Choral Programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Professor of theory and ear training at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Cutter did graduate studies in composition with Pulitzer Prize-winning composers David del Tredici and Bernard Rands. His choral music is published by Hal Leonard Publishers, E.C. Schirmer, Walton Publishers, and Alfred Publishers.

As a conductor he served as the assistant chorus master of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus of the Boston Symphony and was the chorus master of the Boston Lyric Opera Company as well as Odyssey Opera. He has been a guest conductor with Boston Choral Ensemble, The New England Conservatory Chamber Singers, as well as many high school choral festivals around the eastern U.S. sponsored by the American Choral Director’s Association.

Chris Baum is a contemporary violinist, composer, educator, and recording artist who “ushers the violin into fresh sonic territory” (NPR). A pioneer of modern string technique, his strength lies in his versatility, consistently pushing boundaries while molding his playing to fit ensembles and genres often deemed unsuitable for the instrument. The Boston Globe calls him “viciously talented… teemed with color and creativity.” Trained in a demanding classical environment, Baum expanded his musical vocabulary at Berklee College of Music, where he graduated with honors with a degree in film scoring and composition. His work has been featured across the globe, from Boston’s Symphony Hall to Tokyo’s Hitomi Memorial Hall and Beijing’s Workers Arena. Baum’s list of credits includes collaborations with The Dear Hunter, Leprous, Ben Levin, ShoutHouse, ICEBERG, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Mantra Percussion, Capcom Live, Amanda Palmer, Sam Solomon, Robbie Fitzsimmons, Harmonix, Output, The World Is…, Dropkick Murphys, Richard Henshall, Wheat, Art Decade, and Jherek Bischoff. He currently serves as a creative partner in the band Bent Knee, a touring member of the Guy Mendilow Ensemble, and a soloist for the Video Game Orchestra.

George Darrah is a composer, arranger and percussionist in the Boston area. In his career, George has performed for President Barack Obama, then Vice President Joe Biden and on the Today Show, as well as sharing the stage with Bucky Pizzarelli, Dick Johnson, Dave Liebman, Harold Danko and Bill Holman to name a few. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music with a Master's degree in Jazz Composition, George studied composition with Bill Dobbins, Dave Rivello, Harold Danko and David Liptak and taught jazz theory and history as a graduate instructor. While at Eastman, he also performed as a drummer for the Eastman Jazz Ensemble. Some recent accolades include composing for The Boston Celebrity Series, Makoto Ozone and the Tokyo Jazz Festival, arranging for jazz legend Bobby Shew, arranging for Carmen Bradford, winning several Downbeat Awards and arranging for Jeff Tyzik and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. George has recently released his debut album Passages featuring legendary jazz pianist Harold Danko. George is a frequent clinician, composer-in-residence and adjudicator in the US and teaches private drum set/percussion lessons, composition and arranging at Endicott College where he is the founder and director of the Endicott Percussion Ensemble.