On the 2023 New York City Marathon Day – Sunday, November 5 – over 40 ACMP members from the New York City metropolitan area joined forces in an en masse Play-In at Broadway Presbyterian Church, as a benefit for violist Kim Kashkashian’s nonprofit Music for Food, a musician-led initiative to fight hunger in our local communities.

While most Music for Food events are benefit concerts by professional musicians for a local soup kitchen in their area, pianist/violist Arlene Hajinlian would love to get more amateur musicians involved in organizing Play-Ins or informal house concerts for the cause. ACMP co-organized this event with Arlene, who serves on our North American Outreach Council (NAOC) and on the Board of Directors of Music for Food. Arlene is renowned in the NYC ACMP community for her annual en masse Brandenburg Play-Ins, but this time we thought we would do something a little bit different.

In choosing the repertoire this year, our primary goal was to find more playing opportunities for the woodwinds, who are often sidelined at Play-Ins. In collaboration with conductor Ben Grow, we came up with a varied list of repertoire engaging 2 oboists, 6 flutists, 3 clarinetists, 3 bassoonists, 2 French horn players, 3 trumpeters, 17 violinists, 11 violists, 8 cellists and 1 double bassist. Over the course of the afternoon, we played Mozart’s Wind Serenade no. 10 in E flat major; Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll; Handel’s Water Music and Concerto Grosso Op. 3 No. 1; and Telemann’s quirky Ouverture-Suite TWV B:11 “La Bourse” (“The Stock Exchange.”) Who even knew there was a stock exchange back then? Well – there was – and Telemann lived above it in Frankfurt when he wrote this piece, which ends with a dramatically un-American sounding movement “Hope of the Mississippi.” It was three hours of non-stop music-making, with hurried trips to the snack area to enjoy a potluck buffet of homemade snacks.

A great time was had by all, and what makes us even happier is that we raised $503 for Music for Food while playing music for pleasure with old and new friends!

All proceeds went to the Broadway Community at Broadway Presbyterian Church, which is considered one of the finest soup kitchens in Manhattan. We hope that ACMP’s grass-roots efforts made a difference in the lives of New Yorkers experiencing food insecurity this Fall.