Help After Harvey: a powerful display of serving others with the gift of music

On Friday September 8, 2017 eighty four musicians took the stage at Severance Hall to allow their gift of music to serve those affected by the devastating hurricanes in Texas and Florida. The full orchestra included musicians from The Cleveland Orchestra together with students from the Oberlin Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music: 18 Credo alumni and faculty among them.

Credo’s new Executive Director Henry Peyrebrune explains that when we [the Credo Team] first considered the idea of this concert, we decided to go for it – first, because it’s the right thing to do, and second, because it would be a turbo-charged fulfillment of our mission to develop young musicians for a lifetime of using their musical gifts to serve those around them.”

When we reached out to Oberlin and CIM, their immediate response was “we’re all in!”. Next Henry asked his colleagues in The Cleveland Orchestra if they would play. Despite the orchestra being on vacation, dozens volunteered, and the orchestra management made Severance Hall available to us. Within a day, we had a partnership with four major organizations, a conductor (Oberlin graduate and former Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra James Feddeck), a world-famous concert hall, and we were well on our way to putting together a full orchestra.

The day of the concert arrived just 10 short days later. In a true testament of the strength in working together, the evening was a success in every sense of the word. Over 1000 people filled the hall, coming from all across Northeast Ohio. That evening the audience and the orchestra shared a powerful experience: an experience of coming together and allowing the music to express the anger, the sadness, the hope and the strength that such devastating events bring out in all of us.

Click here to view photos from the evening on Credo's facebook page.

This concert was possible thanks to our partners at Oberlin, CIM, The Cleveland Orchestra and The American Red Cross Northeast Ohio Region, as well as the generous support of The Musical Arts Association, The Kulas Foundation and the John P. Murphy Foundation. The time of writing $24,000 was raised for the American Red Cross disaster relief fund. To make a gift visit: https://www.redcross.org/donate/cm/credomusic-pub