28666: Hermantin(News)Making music to aid Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Fri, Jul. 21, 2006


BENEFIT CONCERT
Making music to aid Haiti

By ROBIN M. PEGUERO
rpeguero@MiamiHerald.com

Enceau Fatal learned how to strike drums as a poor kid on the streets of Petit 
Gove, Haiti. One folkish beat, one hollow pound -- and he was hooked. Worlds 
away, an 8-year-old, upper-class Italian, Claudia Cagnassone, first fingered 
the violin, honing her skill at a Turin music academy.

The two have never spoken -- with words, anyway. They let the music do the 
talking.

Come Saturday, the unlikely pair will share a stage, fusing classical melodies 
with island rhythm at the Friends of Haiti Benefit Concert in Fort Lauderdale. 
The Symphony of the Americas will host a Milan orchestra for the event, as they 
play classical tunes, an Argentine tango and two Haitian pieces at the Broward 
Center for the Performing Arts.

''Music is a universal language -- whether you speak Creole or not,'' said 
Sandy Riblett, a Pompano Beach violinist who will play with the orchestra this 
weekend.

The concert's proceeds will fund a computer learning center, a math and science 
program for junior high school students and a portable water project in Fort 
Lauderdale's sister city, Cap Haitien.

Fatal, 38, and his four-member band, Sosyete Koukouy, will take their 
hard-hitting beats from the streets to the theater, performing with the 
orchestra for the two Haitian songs.

The Symphony of the Americas grew interested in Haiti after its performers 
visited the beleaguered nation last year. The group conducted a series of 
concerts for Haitian youth there, and decided to bring that eclectic mix to 
South Florida Haitians.