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Martin Berkofsky performed
on Saturday, May 3, in the Missouri Recital Hall
of the Haidee and Allen Wild Center for the Arts on the Cottey
College campus, presenting four works of Franz
Liszt, the pianist-composer-abbe for whom Berkofsky has felt
an affinity since childhood.
The concert was attended by an enthusiastic group of faculty,
students, and residents of Nevada and nearby cities. Steve
Moyer (third photo), reporter from the Nevada Daily Mail
and his wife-new friends were also in attendence.
KRPS Public Radio, Pittsburg, Kansas, generously helped
in organizing the benefit performance at Cottey. KRPS also
ran several on-air
announcements. Kris Korb (second
photo: on left), director of public events at Cotty College
was also instumental in organizing the event as well as assisting
Martin in his run.
David Vanderhoofven (second photo: on right),
stayed through the concert
to make certain that the piano stayed perfectly in tune.
On
April 9, 2003, Berkofsky began a momentous journey of nearly
900 miles, running from the Cancer Treatment Centers
of America hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he was treated;
some five months later crossing the finish line at the
headquarters of the Cancer Treatment Research Foundation
in Arlington
Heights, Illinois. The entire run shall raise funds for
the Cancer Treatment Research Foundation, a premiere bedside
(not test-tube) research organization dedicated to the
eradication
of cancer. In the fall of 2000, pianist Martin Berkofsky was treated
at Cancer Treatment Centers of America. He returned from
his stay with a suitcase stuffed with rubber noses, monstrous
green plastic gloves and other relics of his humor class
and a renewed outlook on life; a heightened sensitivity to
others and the conviction that caring works, and works at
every level. He also returned with a commitment to help other
cancer patients. With solo performances, ensemble concerts,
and the sales of compact discs, he has helped the homeless,
a neighbor pay for a heart transplant, Albanian refugees
at the height of their crisis, and a blind girl in Macedonia
trying to educate herself.
More information about Berkofsky and his charitable foundation
may be found at his Web site: http://cristoforifund.tripod.com/.
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