Outreach Corner: Lift Every Voice And Sing
contributions by Daniel Clark Smith, Brandon Mayberry, and Lianne Coble-Dispensa
Met Chorus Artists Partner with the Show Me Your Heart Foundation
Back Row, from L-R: Daniel Peretto, Marco Jordao, Daniel Clark Smith, Stephen Paynter. Front Row, from L-R: Danielle Walker, Catherine Choi Steckmeyer, Suzanne Falletti, Seunghye Lee, Liz Wentworth.
When an opportunity presents itself to sing for charity, we jump at it. One of our chorus sopranos, Seunghye Lee, met Show Me Your Heart Foundation Chair Heather Won Choi through a friend at her church. Through the foundation, Heather partners with other non-profits, and this time facilitated two performances over the course of two December weeks in New Jersey. One concert was for Heather’s charity partners, and one was for the staff and patients at Jospeh M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital. At both events choristers sang a program of opera and holiday songs, culminating in “Libiamo” from La Traviata, featuring Danielle Walker and Marco Jordão as the young lovers Violetta and Alfredo. Entertaining appreciative donors, parents, doctors and nurses as well as patients in a hospital was a treat for us. During our busy opera season we often lose sight of the good work being done around us in the New York metropolitan area. But this past holiday season gave us a way to reach out to community leaders to say thank you to these everyday heroes using our own special talents.
The Holiday Gang (joined this time by Juwan Lee, Gloria Watson, and Patricia Steiner) sings for the Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital.
Thank you to all the participants in the concerts: Assistant Chorus Master Joseph Lawson; sopranos Seunghye Lee, Suzanne Falletti, Danielle Walker; mezzo-sopranos Elizabeth Brooks, Catherine Mi-Eun Choi Steckmeyer, Patricia Kay Steiner, Gloria Watson; tenors Marco Jordão, Juhwan Lee, Stephen Paynter, Daniel Clark Smith; and basses Daniel Peretto, and Yohan Yi.
Brandon Mayberry: Doing Incredible Work, Then & Now
Brandon and Riki, his mother-in-law.
In March of 2011, Met Chorus Bass Brandon Mayberry became something that few of us will ever become: a living kidney donor. In a selfless act of love and compassion, Brandon donated a kidney to his husband’s mother. They were perfect matches, despite their divergent lineages: Riki was from Israel and of Jewish heritage, and Brandon has American roots dating back before the Revolutionary War. Since then, he has been active in his volunteerism and support for the National Kidney Foundation.
in 2014, after a six-month personal fundraising campaign, Brandon, with the help of his company, the Chicago-based Swirlz Cupcakes, was able to present the National Kidney Foundation with a check for over $20,000 on World Kidney Day (March 14th). This was exactly 6 months from Swirlz’s 7-year anniversary. Swirlz participated in helping Brandon get to that number by donating a portion of their proceeds from the company’s delicious red velvet cupcakes.
Other fundraising opportunities came in the form of physical fitness! He enjoys participating in the yearly Healthy Kidney 10K put on by the New York Road Runners. (Note: His first race, in which he was joined by fellow Met Chorister Nathan Carlisle, was only two months after his surgery!) His most recent fundraising drive, which involved him running the NYC Half Marathon with Team Kidney (and Nathan, his running partner-in-crime), raised over $5,400 for the National Kidney Foundation!
Brandon will soon add to his list of charitable efforts the opportunity to sing for the upcoming National Kidney Foundation’s Gala Fundraiser. Originally scheduled for late April, the fundraiser was postponed in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. But he is looking forward to participating in the near future. Brandon says, “the upcoming gala participation with the Foundation is just another way I’ve tried to raise visibility and offer help to a cause close to my heart.”