The Dorothy Day House homeless shelter and the Bay Area music collective Vitamin Em announce a collaborative new music performance project to expand awareness of the shelter’s work through the power of music. Funded by a City of Berkeley Civic Arts grant, this project allows Vitamin Em to compose new and original music, rehearse it, and then perform it for those served by the Dorothy Day House and Bay Area communities. These new musical works will be performed at a free public concert and fundraiser on Saturday, June 3 at 1:30pm at the Berkeley Civic Center Park at 2151 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Berkeley. The family friendly afternoon-long event will take place across from the Dorothy Day House, next to the Farmer’s Market, and will include speakers and community leaders. The Dorothy Day House Food Truck will be selling BBQ lunches made in their kitchen and the organization will hold a drive for men’s t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers.
During the pandemic, Vitamin Em violist Emily Onderdonk was introduced to Dorothy Day House and felt a strong need to bring awareness to the organization and a deep desire to ensure equitable access to music. She felt Dorothy Day House’s mission, to foster a compassionate and collaborative environment focused on the individual and collective happiness of everyone who comes through the organization’s doors, was a perfect place to develop a new model of community activism that combines art with service. The City of Berkeley Civic Arts grant has allowed Vitamin Em and Dorothy Day House to further this model by coming together, taking action, and providing a voice to people experiencing homelessness.
Formed in 2015, Vitamin Em is a collective of some of the top musicians in the Bay Area - creators and performers with well-established careers, drawn to collaborate with each other in new and exciting ways. Their goal is to create joyful, uplifting, and moving performances of original and diverse music. Vitamin Em features Evan Price and Mads Tolling on violin, Emily Onderdonk on viola, Michael Graham on cello, Paul Hanson on bassoon, and Rob Reich on accordion.
Cost: Free