Événement

Star Lit Night

This concert is a benefit organized by the founder of the RR Group Project, assisting refugees fleeing violence in the Northern Triangle of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala in Central America. The conditions of their journey are life threatening. Refugees are often picked up for human trafficking, fall off the trains they travel on, known as the "Beast"and lose limbs, or fall victim to gangs who rob and sometimes murder them. Women with children are in even worse danger as they have no protection and often walk for miles a day carrying their babies in their arms. Many are turned back before they can apply for asylum in Mexico. According to the UN High Commission on Refugees, these people meet all the standards to qualify them as 'refugees," not economic immigrants. Doctors without Borders has proclaimed this mass exodus from Central America a crisis similar to that in Syria.

Many "stars" in the Portland music world have stepped up to perform and help us raise money for our work in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico where the RR Group supports a safe house located in the neighboring community of Celaya. They also support a "Tracks Team," volunteers who go daily to the train tracks to bring water, snacks, hygiene packets, new back packs, shoes, and other clothing, when they can get it, to offer to the refugees they find near there.

About our Musical Stars:

As one of the Pacific Northwest's most renowned musical artists, Tom Grant is a natural instrumentalist who nimbly walks the line between jazz tradition and modern pop. Tom plays jazz piano with the harmonic sophistication and deep sense of swing that only comes from more than four decades on the bandstand.

Nancy Curtins repertoire focuses mainly on the beautiful music of Bossa Nova, mining the deep well of rarely heard songs (sung in Portuguese) to come out of that musically ground-breaking era of Brazilian music. Her live performances also include American jazz standards.

Laura Cunard is one of the most gifted jazz vocalists to emerge from the Northwest in recent years. Laura has an incredibly wide emotional and vocal range, which she can control with pinpoint perfection, on an array of styles such as an up-tempo scat, a sensuous bossa nova or a tender ballad.Laura is a very accomplished pianist as well.

The Troubadours of Tales, Sonya and Fred, have been performing their original music which harkens back to the folk and protest music of the 60's and 70's. Former Portland residents, they now live and perform on the Oregon Coast. They look forward to helping
the RR Group raise money to help the refugees.