Dove of Peace Lutheran Church is wrapping up its virtual concert series with a performance at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 11, with pianist Alexander Tentser.
Tentser, who teaches piano at Pima Community College and is a regular on Tucson stages, will break in the church’s newly acquired Steinway Model B piano for the occasion.
Tentser will perform Haydn’s Piano Sonata in G minor alongside three works by Greig including “From Days of Youth” and 19th/20th century Russian composer Nikolai Karlovich Medtner’s Sonata-Reminiscenza from “Forgotten Melodies.”
He closes the recital with Brahms’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel.
The recital, which will be streamed through doveofpeacetucson.org, is the season finale of Dove of Peace’s 2020-21 community concert series. Admission is free, but the church accepts donations to benefit local nonprofit organizations.
Proceeds from Tentser’s concert will benefit the Musicians Relief Fund, established last year by Tucson arts organizer and musician Ben Nisbet and his partners Katie Haverly and Hannah Levin to raise money for musicians impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the pandemic began last spring, musicians of all walks have been sidelined as venues shuttered and gigs were canceled.
A year into the health crisis, venues remain closed, causing financial ruin for many musicians who rely solely on their music to support themselves.
The initial goal of the Musicians Relief Fund was to raise $25,000 to provide grants to professional musicians to pay household or medical bills, child care, food or support other essential needs.
To date, the effort has raised nearly $40,000 not including a $6,000 donation that didn’t go through the GoFundMe website.
Nisbet, in a note posted on the crowdsourcing website, said he has distributed more than $39,000 to musicians in need and hopes to raise several thousand more to provide musicians another “stimulus” payment to help make ends meet.
Learn more about the fund at tucne.ws/c19mrf.
