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Black Tie International:
Polyphony Foundation
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Craig and
Deborah Cogut, co-founders of Polyphony, with their son Alex
Cogut, Polyphony Youth Coordinator.
Photo by: Annie Watt
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On Thursday evening, June 21, 17 Greenwich Christian and
Jewish institutions together with Polyphony Foundation
founders Craig and Deborah Cogut, and event chairs David
Mullen and Amy Lipton hosted a concert and reception at
First Presbyterian Church in Greenwich, CT. The
church was packed with 400 music lovers as acclaimed Israeli
conductor Karin Ben-Josef delighted the audience with the
Polyphony Youth Orchestra's renditions of Bach, Barber,
Grieg and Handel. The student musicians, who range in
age from 9-17 wowed the audience with the virtuosity of
their playing. Included among the enormously gifted
musicians were violinists Feras Machour and Yamen Saadi who
both were recently awarded first prize in the prestigious
Paul Ben Haim music competition in Israel.
Rev. William Evertsberg of The First Presbyterian Church of
Greenwich welcomed the audience and introduced the
musicians. At the performance's conclusion, benedictions
were offered by Rabbi Mitchell
Hurvitz of Temple Sholom,
Monsignor Alan Detscher of Saint Catherine's Church and Imam
Kareem Adeeb of The American Institute for Islamic and
Arabic Studies.
Polyphony seeks to bring
equal opportunity for music education and other innovative
educational programs to Arab Israeli youth, offer Jewish
youth opportunities to participate in these programs and
create channels for dialogue between Jewish and Arab
communities in Israel.
The Polyphony Foundation is a U.S. based 501(c)3
organization that believes that music has a unique power to
transcend cultural and social boundaries, educating both
performer and audience in the art of listening and
communicating. Polyphony believes creating new channels for
engagement between young members of diverse communities is
an essential step towards the creation of a just and
peaceful society in Israel.
Polyphony was founded in 2011
by four individuals, Craig and Deborah Cogut; renowned
concert violinist and co-founder of both The
Orpheus Foundation and The Barenboim-Said Conservatory in
Nazareth, Nabeel
Abboud-Ashkar; and award winning singer, songwriter,
actress, producer and activist Cher.
This is the orchestra's
second annual U.S. tour and its first since being awarded
the Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Award for the Arts in February
at a ceremony at MOMA. Greenwich is the orchestra's first
stop on the tour which also
includes performances at several venues in New York City,
Detroit, the Hamptons and Aspen.
For further information about
Polyphony, please visit
www.polyphonyfoundation.org .
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