By Shavonne Walker

shavonne.walker@salisburypost.com

This Friday marks the 8th annual Concert for Community Collaboration, an event that will feature internationally renowned Ciompi String Quartet.

The concert, which is sponsored by the FirstARTS Series of  First United Methodist Church of Salisbury, begins at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. A gala reception will follow the event in the Carter Lobby.

The series is funded through the members of the church and will benefit One Church One Child, a program that ensures healthy, safe and protective outcomes for Rowan County children and teens who are victimized by sexual, physical, emotional abuse, neglect or dependency.

These children are those who are currently receiving in-home case management, child protective, foster care or adoption services from the county department of social services. Jon Hunter is the One Church One Child coordinator.

The program has been able to provide 74 children in the in-home/case management services with Easter baskets from a member congregation. As of March, 33 children were served through purchases by the Rowan One Church One Child funds. Other items that were purchased include formula, shoes, a baby sleeper, smoke detectors, breast pump and bottles, a door lock.

“This event is a way of highlighting other organizations that do really great work in the community that might not receive as much recognition,” said concert organizer Matthew Michael Brown, the artistic director of FirstARTS Series and the director of music at First United Methodist Church.

The annual concert series links the music program of First United Methodist Church to the community and beyond. The series began in 2008 and has hosted acclaimed artists from New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington and North Carolina.

Brown said the first concert benefited the Glenn Kiser Hospice House and has since supported the efforts of Food for Thought, Rowan Care Alliance, and the Rowan County Family Crisis Council. To date, the concert series has raised over $75,000 for these charitable organizations.

The Ciompi Quartet was founded at Duke University in 1965 by Italian violinist Giorgio Ciompi. All of the quartet members are Duke University professors. The quartet has performed well-known masterpieces to works by today’s most communicative composers, he said.

The quartet has performed at Monadnock Music in New Hampshire, at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Michigan, North Carolina’s Eastern Music Festival and Highlands Chamber Music Festival.