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NATALIE COLE
TO HEADLINE
DANA’S ANGELS RESEARCH TRUST
GALA BENEFIT & CONCERT
Saturday, May 5, 2012, at The Palace Theatre,
Stamford, Connecticut
L.O.V.E. now stands for D.A.R.T! Dana’s Angels Research
Trust (DART) is excited to announce its annual Gala Benefit
and Concert on Saturday, May 5, 2012, with nine-time
Grammy® award winner Natalie Cole, at the Palace Theatre
in Stamford, Conn. The concert will be kicked-off with a
Gala Benefit that includes an elegant cocktail reception
with a pasta bar by World-Famous RAO’s Italian Restaurant,
silent and live auction items, and hosts Kathie Lee and
Frank Gifford. Gala tickets are $350 and up and are
available online at
www.DanasAngels.org . Concert tickets are $150, $95
and $65 and are available through the Stamford Center for
the Arts Box Office at
www.SCALive.org or by calling 203-325-4466.
2012 marks DART’s tenth year as a non-profit focused on
Niemann-Pick type C research. Throughout the years, DART
has been blessed to have the support of incredible
performers to its cause, such as America, Richard Dreyfuss,
Rob Mathes, Smokey Robinson and Frankie Valli, who have all
performed at the DART Gala Benefits. Kathie Lee and Frank
Gifford are also long-time supporters of DART, hosting each
annual benefit, along with Regis Philbin, who joined Kathie
Lee on stage last year, and a few years prior.
Once again, Michelle Phillips from The Mamas and The
Papas fame, will act as honorary chair.
And this year Natalie Cole will be a very special treat.
Natalie Cole rocketed to stardom with her
debut album Inseparable, earning her a #1 single with
“This Will Be (An Everlasting Love),” and two Grammy
awards for Best New Artist, as well as Best Female R&B Vocal
Performance. More hit singles followed, including
“Sophisticated Lady (She’s A Different Lady),” “I’ve
Got Love on My Mind,” “Someone That I Used to Love,”
“I Live For Your Love” and a remake of Bruce
Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac.” In 1991 Natalie Cole
took a bold leap that would change her life and career
forever. Already a highly successful R&B artist, she amazed
everyone when she recorded Unforgettable…With Love,
an album of standards from the American Songbook that
included a duet with her late father, Nat King Cole, on the
title track. The album spent five weeks at #1 on the pop
charts, earned six Grammy awards (including Song, Record and
Album of the Year) and sold more than 14 million copies
worldwide. As an award-winning singer, songwriter and
performer Natalie Cole has proven to be one of the most
beloved musical artists of all time.
“DART is thrilled to have Natalie Cole
headline this year’s Gala Benefit and concert,” noted Phil
and Andrea Marella, founders of Dana’s Angels Research
Trust. “2012 marks the tenth anniversary of DART, and what
better way to honor this occasion than with one of the most
‘unforgettable’ performers of our time. In addition,
‘L.O.V.E.’ is one of our daughter Dana’s favorite
songs, so it will be extra special to our family, and all of
our supporters, to have Natalie sing that song.”
Dana’s Angels Research Trust is a non-profit organization
that funds research into a rare disease, Niemann-Pick type C
(NPC), a fatal, cholesterol storage disease affecting
children. Two of the Marella’s four children, Dana and
Andrew, have NPC.
Most children who suffer from NPC die in
their early teens, but DART has helped change that fate. As
an all volunteer organization, more than 95 percent of the
funds expended are channeled directly into supporting
pivotal NPC research; research that may also help millions
of people suffering from HIV/Aids, heart disease, stroke,
Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders that appear to be
related to cholesterol.
The Marella children have been on different treatments that
have helped keep the disease at bay – especially for Andrew,
who is currently 12 years old and was diagnosed early and
started treatment at a young age. His sister Dana, who is
now 18, was not diagnosed until she was eight. She is now
confined to a wheelchair, no longer talks, and requires
complete care, but because of some successful treatment, she
is still able to attend school.
To date, DART has raised more than $2.3
million toward the search for a cure for NPC. DART is
particularly proud of its commitment as a founding member of
a unique, collaborative drug development program called
SOAR-NPC or Support Of Accelerated Research. Working
with other NPC families and research institutions, SOAR’s
collaborators
have two drug trials already to their credit,
and a third planned for fall 2012.
To learn more about Dana’s Angels Research Trust (DART), and
to purchase Gala tickets to the May 5th DART Gala
Benefit and Concert with Natalie Cole, visit http://www.danasangels.org
or http://www.facebook.com/danasangels. To purchase concert
only tickets, visit
http://www.SCALive.org .
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