Hampst-Aid is a remarkable one-off charity event. This is an evening of interesting and demanding duos, trios and quartets, played by world-class musicians who are giving their time for a very important cause. We welcome, for the first time at a MAE Foundation concert, the brilliant Craig Ogden and the leading cellist Anthony Pleeth, alongside the wonderful John Williams, Richard Harvey, Graham Preskett and violinist David Juritz. The music is a varied programme of works by Giuliani, Piazzolla and Vivaldi.
This concert is organised by the MAE Foundation, which concentrates on taking musical instruments and music teaching to thousands of refugee children from Burma in the jungle refugee camps along the Thai border.
Since 2010, the charity -- founded and supported by British-based composers and musicians -- has already delivered more than a thousand instruments and songbooks to children in the Mae La camp. The aim of this concert is to finance the second MAE Foundation songbook, to buy more instruments and to guarantee the rapid expansion of our provision of music teachers for these bright, enthusiastic children.
Despite the changes now taking place in Burma, the children in these camps -- more than 60,000 of them -- will still be living in temporary, leaf-roofed huts in the jungle for years to come. Support the MAE Foundation and enjoy a superb evening of exciting music, played by an extraordinary line-up of virtuoso musicians.