Simon and Friends
Thursday 22 July, 2010
7pm - 10pm

St James Church, Philip and King St, Sydney, NSW (Map)

Tickets: $35 ($25 concession)
Online bookings here

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On Thursday 22nd July at the acoustically wonderful, Francis Greenway designed St James Church in the Sydney CBD, world renowned classical pianist, Simon Tedeschi will be joined on stage by his friends Kevin Hunt, and Mariia Gorkun to perform a concert in aid of the MicroLoan Foundation. Hutchings Pianos will be providing the hire of a premium, European designed and manufactured Schimmel grand piano, in aid of this very worthwhile cause.

Bob Geldof is the UK patron of the MicroLoan Foundation and Simon Tedeschi is the Australian patron. MicroLoan provides small loans, basic business training and ongoing mentoring support to groups of women in sub Saharan Africa, who are regarded as too poor to receive commercial loans from banks. Their ultimate aim is to help the poor help themselves eradicate poverty. 'Core to the ethos of the MicroLoan Foundation is the word 'micro.' We started small, concentrating on helping poor women living in rural areas and making 'micro' loans.’ (Peter Ryan, Founder and CEO)

All directors and staff at the MicroLoan Foundation in Australia are unpaid. Any overheads have been funded by themselves or have come out of a specially provided infrastructure fund. The concert on the 22nd will provide a direct injection of funds into the work the MicroLoan Foundation Australia does in Malawi to help some of the worlds poorest women start and run small businesses and support themselves.

Wendy Hutchings is a strong supporter of many charities. ‘I love providing support to organisations I believe in. It gives me a great level of satisfaction being able to make a difference, particularly through music’. Simon Tedeschi is also a great philanthropist. ‘I generally get behind any cause that I feel strongly about, it's really the minimum a musician can do in order to give back.’ (Yahoo7 News 24/06/2010)

To read about how Simon became so passionate about using his music for the greater good, we recommend reading a fantastic article about him that recently featured in The Australian -  Review section (July 3-4 2010)

At the MicroLoan concert, he will be joined on stage by Kevin Hunt, the well-known Sydney jazz and classical pianist and Mariia Gorkun, an amazing violinist from the Ukraine and a Masters of Music candidate at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. They will be performing some of their personal favourite pieces including, Beethoven, Ravel, Duke Ellington and Gerswin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Tickets are only $35 and are available online here ($25 Concession - proof required before entry on night). This is an amazing price to see such world class performers. We ask all Hutchings Pianos customers to consider supporting this event.