The Colburn School Goes Red For WORLD AIDS DAY With Performances By Calidore String Quartet & Colburn Woodwind Ensemble Today!

The Colburn School proudly hosts WORLD AIDS DAY, with performances by the award-winning Calidore String Quartet and the exquisite Colburn Woodwind Ensemble. Joining in as Master of Ceremonies will be Emmy Award winner, LeVar Burton, speaking on the historic significance of this important day, along with keynote speaker and Director of the Division of Infectious Disease at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Dr. David Hardy, who will address the severity and impact HIV/AIDS has had throughout Los Angeles area, and across the world.

The concert will take place today, Friday, November 30, from 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm in Zipper Hall at The Colburn School, Los Angeles, CA; it will feature Calidore String Quartet and Colburn Woodwind Ensemble.

In addition to the concert, honored guests Oscar de La O, president of the largest Latino AIDS Service Organization in the nation, BIENSTAR; Dr. Michael Gottlieb, the discoverer of HIV; and Mr. Bruno de Rísios Bath, Consul General of Brazil in Los Angeles will be in attendance. Community partners for this nationally recognized day include The Colburn School, Bienestar Human Services, AIDS Project Los Angeles, The Black AIDS Institute, Alliance for Housing and Healing, the OASIS Clinic, the Consulate General of Brazil in Los Angeles, In the Meantime Men's Group, Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, UCLA Center for Clinical AIDS Research and Education, UCLA Center for AIDS Research, and the UCLA Vine Street Clinic.

One of the most exciting young ensembles to emerge on the chamber music scene in recent years, the international prize-winning Calidore String Quartet (violinists Jeffrey Myers and Ryan Meehan, violist Jeremy Berry, and cellist Estelle Choi), is noted for its fiery brilliance, breadth of musicianship and palpable energy that engages audiences. Formed at the prestigious Colburn School Conservatory of Music in 2010, the Calidore String Quartet has presented recitals across the United States and Europe to great acclaim.

The Calidore String Quartet has been recognized, internationally, for their technical brilliance and compelling musicianship. Most recently, the quartet captured top prizes at the 61st ARD Munich International String Quartet Competition and the 2012 Hamburg International Chamber Music Competition, adding to their list of awards, which includes the grand prize for the 2011 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the 2012 Coleman and Chesapeake International Chamber Music Competitions. Highlights of the quartet’s 2012-13 season include their New York debut on the renowned Schneider Concert Series at Mannes College, The New School for Music, a return to the Laguna Beach Music Festival, an east coast tour throughout New York, Virginia, Maryland and Florida, as well as numerous concerts in Southern California. Additionally, the quartet will be a featured Young Artist-in-Residence with American Public Media’s Performance Today in the spring of 2013. For more information visit www.calidorequartet.com.

The Colburn School is a world-class performing arts school located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, neighboring the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Music Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the planned Broad Museum. Its acclaimed faculty provides students with the highest quality performing arts education, which includes a multitude of performance opportunities in a state-of-the-art facility. More than 2000 students attend classes in: the Conservatory of Music, the Community School of Performing Arts, Young Artist Academy, Adult Studies and the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute.

WORLD AIDS DAY’s origins can be traced back to 1987, when the idea was initially proposed by two officials of the Global Programme on AIDS at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Originally coined as UNAIDS, the day reserved for sparking awareness about growing concerns over the disease across the nation, gained the respect of government and health officials around the world and is now observed as World AIDS Day, where each year on December 1st, speeches and proclamations are held to raise local and global awareness. The day became official when in 1993 President Bill Clinton issued a proclamation, making December 1st the nationally recognized day for the AIDS pandemic, which was originally caused by the spread of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Today, President Barack Obama also stands in support of WORLD AIDS DAY and called on all Americans in 2011 to “stand with the individuals and communities affected by HIV and recommit to progress toward an AIDS free generation.”