Flaunt Weeekly
Nearly two weeks after dozens of high-profile musical artists came together to raise money for Los Angeles wildfire relief efforts at the FireAid concert in late January, a team of film, TV and video game composers put on their own benefit concert Saturday night.
The event, held at The Village in West L.A., was put together to raise funds for musicians whose homes were affected by the city’s devastating recent string of wildfires. An estimated $70,000 was raised at the event, which was attended by 160 entertainment industry members. Performing-arts organization K17 organized the benefit concert, and K17 founder Evgeny Tonkha introduced the at the start of the evening.
The concert featured performances from Sundance Film Music Program director Peter Golub, who performed a new piece he’d written in the wake of the destruction of his studio during the Palisades fire; James Newton Howard, who opened the night with a bit of his score for 2022’s “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore”; Stephanie Economou, who conducted a piece of her “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3” score; Anna Drubich, who performed part of her music for the Russian film “The Master and Margarita”; and Harry Gregson-Williams, who performed a portion of his score for 2007’s “Gone Baby Gone” as well as an original, non-film piece of music.
“Logan” composer Marco Beltrami also performed at the event, conducting Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Prelude in A minor,” while “The Notebook” composer Aaron Zigman rounded out the event’s performances with renditions of two non-film pieces. Gregson-Williams was forced to evacuate his home in the Palisades as a result of the fires in the region. While his home fortunately survived the disaster, the composer dedicated his performance to his assistant, whose house wasn’t as fortunate.
The event featured a 43-piece orchestra comprised of musicians who all provided their time without charge, five of whom also lost their homes as a result of the wildfires. The concert is one of several wildfire relief events that have been held in response to the recent disaster.
Others so far include the FireAid Concert, which will be available to stream for one year and which reportedly raised over $100 million in aid for those affected by the wildfires and for fire prevention initiatives, and the G*VE A F*CK L.A. benefit show, which was held at the Hollywood Palladium on Feb. 5 and featured performances from Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Lucy Dacus, FINNEAS, Jenny Lewis, St. Vincent, Fred Armisen, MUNA, Courtney Barnett and Phantom Planet.
