Smokey Robinson, the Grammy® Award winning member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and “King of Motown,” will be performing a one-night only benefit concert for Dana’s Angels Research Trust (DART) on Friday, May 14, 2010, at the Palace Theatre in Stamford, Conn.  A Gala Cocktail Reception including celebrities will be held prior to the concert at 6:30 p.m. Tickets to the full Gala Reception and Concert start at $300 and are available by invitation only. Invitation requests can be made online at www.DanasAngels.org, by emailing tickets@danasangels.org , or by calling DART at 203-861-2063.  Tickets for the general public to the concert only will be $95.00, $75.00 and $50.00 and will be available online at http://www.tickets.stamfordcenterforthearts.org .

The Smokey Robinson DART Benefit Gala and Concert will be co-hosted by Kathie Lee and Frank Gifford, who are long-time supporters of DART and who have co-hosted previous DART benefits.  Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served at the Gala reception preceding the concert and there will be a live and silent auction with fabulous one-of-a-kind items to bid on.

Dana’s Angels Research Trust (DART) is a charity dedicated to funding medical research, education, and care for the treatment or cure of Niemann-Pick type C disease (NPC) and other similar genetic diseases.  NPC is often called children’s Alzheimer’s. DART’s efforts may help millions of people (adults and children) suffering from NPC, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, stroke, and other disorders that appear to be related to the metabolism of cholesterol.  Although children and some adults worldwide are afflicted, research has been extremely limited primarily because of insufficient funding, the smaller population of those affected, and a lack of public awareness.  Currently, children with NPC rarely live past their early teens, and there is no cure for NPC.  Today, there are limited treatment options, with experimental therapies and medications being tried with hope that there will be progress.  DART was founded by the Marella family of Greenwich.  Two of the Marella’s four children, Dana and Andrew, are afflicted with NPC.

For the Marella family, they knew their daughter Dana, from the age of five, who was a happy, caring and energetic child, had balance and learning difficulties. Over time, Dana's visual and cognitive abilities, and her balance became progressively worse.  After years of searching for answers to her challenges, Dana was diagnosed in 2002 at the age of eight with NPC.  In 2004, at the age of 5, Dana's brother Andrew, the Marella's 4th child, was also diagnosed with NPC.  Today, Dana is in a wheelchair, no longer walks or talks and requires total care.  She currently has issues with breathing and swallowing and is undergoing aggressive treatment for the disease.  Her brother Andrew, now age 10 and seemingly normal, is also being treated.

The DART Benefit Gala and Concert on May 14 will feature the legendary
Smokey Robinson, who has had more than 37 Top 40 hits for Motown Records and won a Grammy® Award for his song “Just To See Her” in 1987.  Smokey was a 1988 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a 1991 recipient of the Soul Train Music Award for Career Achievement, a 1999 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner, a 2006 Kennedy Center honoree, a recipient of a Doctorate of Music degree from Howard University (2006), a 2009 recipient of an Honorary Doctorate degree from Berkeley College of Music (for whom he also gave the commencement speech), a Songwriter’s Hall of Fame honoree and a rare double-honoree of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (as a solo artist & member of The Miracles). Along the way, he’s also amassed the love and respect of his peers, from being lyrically lauded by Bob Dylan (who referred to Robinson as “the world’s greatest poet”) to being lyrically cited by 80s Brit-pop band ABC (on the smash hit “When Smokey Sings”), the Beatles’ George Harrison (“Pure Smokey”) and the Tom Tom Club (“Genius of Love”).

“We are thrilled to have Smokey Robinson perform for the DART Gala Benefit Concert,” noted Phil Marella, co-founder of DART and the event organizer.  “Smokey will perform two hours of some of his most beloved songs, such as Being With You, Ooh Baby Baby, Just To See Her, Tears Of A Clown, and Tracks Of My Tears, plus songs from his new album Time Flies When You’re Having Fun.  It will be an awesome and awe-inspiring evening.”

To date, DART has raised close to $1.5 million toward the search for a cure for NPC.  DART is particularly proud of its commitment to a unique therapy development approach for additional NPC treatments called SOAR-NPC or Support Of Accelerated Research.  Working with other NPC families and organizations, SOAR has created a multidimensional collaborative drug development program searching for an effective cocktail treatment for NPC.  The ambitious goal is to have at least two or three new NPC therapies ready for clinical trial in 2011.  In addition, in January of this year, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended the medication Zavesca to treat NPC. Phil Marella of DART, Cindy Parseghian of the Parseghian Foundation, and Barb Vorpahl of the NNPDF spoke during the public portion of the hearing. The drugs sponsor, Actelion said the agency is expected to decide in March whether to approve Zavesca for treating NPC.

To order tickets for the May 14 Smokey Robinson DART Gala Benefit Concert or to learn more about NPC and DART, visit http://www.danasangels.org .