Blog

Community Music Center Fundraiser a Success

by Michele D.  Maniscalco
Thursday Apr 14, 2016

Ink Block's industrial-chic lobby at 300 Harrison Avenue was filled with food and drinks, music, and generosity as over 100 people gathered on Saturday, April 9 to celebrate the Community Music Center of Boston's (CMCB) program of supplementary music education in the Boston Public Schools (BPS) and to help sustain the effort in the future. CMCB netted over $75,000 at the festive evening that featured music by student and alumni ensembles, a cocktail hour and seated dinner, and words of inspiration from some of the program's chief sustainers. The event was titled "The Lapin Legacy: Arts on the Rise", honoring David Lapin, CMCB's executive director of 33 years.

During the cocktail hour, guests nibbled hors d'oeuvres and sipped cocktails including the Lapin Legato, created by Mad River Distillers in Warren, Vermont and named for the man of the hour while listening to a jazz trio of CMCB faculty members including trumpeter Matt Hull, a former recipient of the Blackstone/Franklin Square Neighborhood Association's annual scholarship while he studied at the Berklee College of Music. Guests heard remarks from CMCB board president Mary Carney;Myran Parker-Brass, executive director for the arts for BPS and a CMCB parent, and keynote speaker Laura Perille, president and CEO of EdVestors, which provides funds to Boston-area school to supplement and expand arts and educational offerings for grades K through 12. After dinner, CMCB's Senior String Quartet played selections from Shostakovich, and a video showcasing CMCB's in-house instruction and outreach at the Harvard-Kent School in Charlestown followed.

Lapin was pleased with the outcome of the successful fundraiser, commenting, "I was deeply thrilled and honored to be feted, both for the event itself of course, but also for the cocktail. After all, how many people get drinks named after them! Mad River Distillers did an outstanding job, and my hat is off to them."