On Monday, December 12, at 7:30 pm, St Rose Parish will host a free memorial concert in honor of the tenth anniversary of 12/14.

The concert will feature a string quartet comprised of musicians Rebecca Patterson (New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Principal Cello), Solomiya Ivakhiv (University of Connecticut Associate Professor of Violin), Ashleigh Gordon (Castle of Our Skins, Boston, Director and viola) and Philip Kates (Philadelphia Orchestra, violin).

The program will offer an hour of meditative music for string quartet and solo strings by Schubert, Charles Ives, Florence Price, and more. St Rose Choir director Joe Jacovino will join quartet members on the piano and members of St Rose Adult Choir will combine for Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus.

Kates recently shared a few thoughts with The Newtown Bee ahead of the performance.

“My colleagues and I hope a concert in memory of the children and school staff for this commemoration of Sandy Hook’s tenth anniversary will be a meaningful experience and may bring some comfort to those who attend.

“Speaking about my own motivation to offer this program, my father, who was my first violin teacher, was an elementary school principal. Even during my own elementary school days he brought me to his school and we played together for the children,” Kates shared.

His father, he said, was “a staunch advocate for the health and safety of his school’s children and imbued in me, from my earliest years, these values which have led to my playing for children throughout the world in schools, hospitals and orphanages.

“We can’t know how the larger national community will mark this milestone of the occurrence of such an unthinkable tragedy, but if this concert has even a small role in reminding people of the sacred need to keep our children safe in this country, especially in their schools, that would be, to me, a good thing,” Kates added.

All are welcome to attend the performance.

The church is at 46 Church Hill Road.