'If Music Be the Food' benefit concert, featuring MSU students, returns Saturday in Lansing
“If music be the food of love, play on.”
The line which opens Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” is, in modern times, also the title of a national concert series, “If Music Be the Food,” which gives musicians a chance to share their talents with their community and for their community to show their support for those among them in need.
Chamber musician students from Michigan State are again part of this, putting on concert at 7 p.m. this Saturday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in downtown Lansing, partnering with the First Presbyterian Church of Lansing Food Pantry. Attendees are welcome to bring non-perishable food items or make a cash donation. Admission is otherwise free.
The students performing are under the direction of Grammy-winning violinist Yvonne Lam, who is an assistant professor of violin at MSU and coordinates MSU's chamber music.
“It's a gorgeous venue, it's going to be wonderful music and it's free,” Lam said. “It's our way of being with the community, being one-on-one with the community, and I think it's really important for our students. They come here from all kinds of different places, international students, too. And it's a way of connecting them to the community.”
“If Music Be the Food” began as a concert series in 2009 in Rochester, New York, when violinist Carol Rodland wanted to do something about hunger in her community, and decided the title "If Music Be the Food" fit the mission of “music, food and love.”
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU students to put on 'If Music Be the Food' benefit concert Saturday
