Jersey Sound, an award-winning a cappella chorus of Sweet Adelines International, will be honoring National Breast Cancer Awareness Month by sponsoring its second annual Hope in Harmony benefit choral concert in support of the Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance (LBCA).
The program will take place at the First Presbyterian Church of Moorestown on Saturday, Oct. 26, at 1:30 p.m. Tickets may be purchased from chorus members, online via www. eventbrite.com/e/hope-in-harmony-a-concert-to-benefit-the-lobular-breast-cancer-alliance-tickets-1012190798927 or at the door. Seating is limited, so purchasing tickets in advance is strongly encouraged.
The success of last year’s inaugural event – a rewarding collaboration among three women’s singing groups and a children’s chorus – has inspired all four groups to take the stage again, and the addition of a men’s chorus this year will add even more variety and fun to the performance. The concert, with a showtime theme featuring tunes from musicals and cinema, will showcase the talents of the following: Jersey Sound, Shades of Harmony and Philadelphia Freedom (all member choruses of Sweet Adelines International); Rittenhouse Sound (Philadelphia Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society); and acclaimed youth choir ChildrenSong of New Jersey.
“We’re focusing on show tunes which should be fun for the audience because there will be things that they recognize,” said Kathryn Krantz, member of the LBCA’s board of directors. “We’ve asked the groups to choose things from Broadway shows or movies to television shows, so everything has some kind of a connection with a show theme and some of the pieces will be more familiar than others. It’ll also be an opportunity for people that aren’t really that familiar with Barbershop singing to see what that’s all about.”
All proceeds will go to support the LBCA, a national nonprofit group dedicated to lobular breast cancer research, education and patient advocacy efforts. Lobular breast cancer is the sixth most frequently diagnosed cancer in women in the United States, but one of the least studied and least understood. It has no specific treatments and is treated like the more common breast cancer type. Also, because lobular breast cancer often does not form in lumps, far too many cases are not picked up in early stages by standard screening approaches. Better methods of diagnosis and specific treatments are urgently needed. For more information on the LBCA, visit www.lobularbreastcancer.org.
Local, national and global efforts are now underway to officially designate Oct. 15 (to recognize the 15% of breast cancer patients who have lobular breast cancer) as Lobular Breast Cancer Awareness Day. Additional information can be found at https://lobularbreastcancer.org/october-15th/.
“What I would like to do is make people more aware of the disease itself, and the fact that there is an organization that is really dedicated to education, patient advocacy and research,” Krantz said. “Their donations really go a long way towards those goals … The more people learn about the disease, I’m hoping the more they’ll think about supporting these efforts.”
