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“Concert of Miracles”

March 21, 2014

L.A. Sinfonietta will hold a concert to benefit awareness of bone marrow donations in partnership with Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches on April 5.

Left to right: Kim Yong-jae, Kim Hyong-soon, Cho Hye-won, Joshua Cho

Left to right: Kim Yong-jae, Kim Hyong-soon, Cho Hye-won, Joshua Cho

By The Korea Times Los Angeles staff

The L.A. Sinfonietta will hold a concert to benefit awareness of bone marrow donations in partnership with Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches (A3M) on April 5 at Zipper Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

The “Concert of Miracles” will hopefully bring awareness to the Korean American community about the need for bone marrow donors, said Kim Yong-jae, symphony conductor.

A3M is a recruitment center for Be the Match, the largest marrow registry in the world. According to Be the Match, someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer every four minutes.

Part of the proceeds from the concert will go toward the bone marrow donor program, Kim said. Many members of the orchestra agreed to forfeit pay for the cause and are even considering becoming donors themselves, he said.

Joshua Cho, A3M’s Korean outreach and recruitment coordinator, said registering to become a donor takes just five minutes.

He said about 400 out of some 10 million registered donors with Be the Match have been matches for a marrow transplant. Currently, Asians make up 7 percent of registered donors.

“If people knew it was so easy to register to become a donor, I think more of them would participate. I hope this concert helps toward that,” Kim said.

The L.A. Sinfonietta, which is mostly comprised of professional-level Korean American musicians, began in 2010 and holds concerts to support various causes each year.

The concert will feature works by Weber, Saint-Saens, Poulenc and Beethoven. Guest pianists for the two piano concertos in the program will include Averi Suk, a 14-year-old student, and the husband-and-wife team of Cho Hye-won and Kim Hyong-soon, who is a lawyer by trade.

Cho, who played with the symphony at their first concert, said she and Kim took interest in the issue after a close friend became a successful marrow donor.

“Instead of just performing, we wanted to do something meaningful by performing,” she said.

Tickets will cost $25 for general admission and $15 for students. For more information about bone marrow donation or to volunteer, visit www.a3mHOPE.org.