the story
"Service is the rent each of us pays for living – the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time or after you have reached your personal goals."
-- Marian Wright Edelman
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The spirit and inspiration for the VOICES TOGETHER concert really came from many people and many places…
But at the very start, in the spring of 2005, singer/songwriter David Ippolito asked a small group of friends if they would be willing to put their talents and efforts into helping him do a benefit concert to help the ordinary people in Iraq who were being so badly hurt by the war. He called his friend, Dennis Riley, and told him that he planned to do “something” to help, and asked if he would like to be on board. The two agreed something had to be done and the next day David posted the idea on his “Guitar Man from Central Park” website. Soon after that, people began emailing David from all over. Among them Sue Hannah, Mimi Evans, Beth Shane and others. They all saw the call to help and immediately contacted David through his website.
In a diner on Broadway in New York City, the idea was hatched to form the Voices Together Group. And, their first event would be… the VOICES TOGETHER concert .
In David's own words:
Social issues rarely found their way into my music before the year 2000. I think, like many ordinary people, I actually loathe politics. But in the last four years, some things became too important to ignore and became a matter of conscience rather than a matter of politics. More and more, I became aware of a conspicuous absence of music with a conscience in this country.
I stood in the streets of the city that I love on September 11th, with ordinary people, watching the unthinkable happen. Soon, at my concerts I began to share a spirit of reason with people who did not understand the logic behind our government's invasion of Iraq. This spirit was reflected in some of my songwriting.
Now, the consequences of this war have become another unthinkable reality. I'm baffled at the American news media's aversion to covering the reality of this war. I'm saddened by the way Washington is generally ignoring those who are bearing the brunt of the nightmare… the women and children, the fathers and sons, the innocent civilians, the ordinary people whose lives are being destroyed.
I felt I needed to do something to help. My good friend, Dennis, told me about a woman he knew of in Staten Island, NY, who was doing remarkable things to help the injured people from that part of the world get medical help here in the States. I thought to myself, "Here is an ordinary person making an extraordinary difference."
If most of the mainstream news media have abandoned these people, if our government won't accept responsibility for them, maybe it's time for an ordinary person like me - and other ordinary, good people - to do something. Well, I'm a singer/songwriter. It's what I can do. And, these people need help...period.
The next step was to find others who were doing the same kind of work. Dennis contacted Elissa Montanti of the Global Medical Relief fund, and then the group contacted an organization called LIFE. Both organizations are working directly with the civilians in Iraq who need the most help. The decision was made that these two groups – GMRF and LIFE - would be the first on which they would focus the effort.
The idea has grown… the simple idea of “ordinary people doing something extraordinary to directly help other ordinary people”…
…voices together.
VOICES TOGETHER GROUP: DAVID IPPOLITO, SONGWRITER-MUSICIAN AND ARTISTIC DIRECTORDavid Ippolito has been performing in Central Park since 1992. The New York Times has profiled him several times, saying:
He is famous for serenading large crowds on warm Sunday afternoons on a grassy hill on the western shore of the rowboat lake. There with the sun-dappled waters and gilded Fifth Avenue towers as a backdrop, Mr. Ippolito, who also styles himself ''That Guitar Man From Central Park,'' ("That" sounding less pretentious than "The") applies his lyrical light baritone to original ballads like ''(Thank Heaven We're Not Both) Crazy on the Same Day'' and ''Who the Hell Knows,'' and spirited singalongs to classics like ''Country Roads.''
A dozen years of such performances on the Hill, as he calls the lakefront area a few blocks north of Strawberry Fields and West 72nd Street, have built him a large following. Regulars parrot his shticks as faithfully as midnight audiences at ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show,'' and tourists from around the world rain e-mail messages on him.
The honesty of David’s songs, his musical talent, his gentle humor and boundless energy have given him a huge base of year-round fans – ordinary people, and famous ones as well. He has a popular website: www.thatguitarman.com. On any one weekend, more than a thousand people enjoy his free performance. Over the last fourteen years, David himself has become a New York City institution.
David writes and performs much of his own music, and has produced six CD’s. In the winter David performs and gives concerts at New York venues such as the Red Lion in Greenwich Village and at Merkin Concert Hall.
Since September 2001, David’s music and performances have increasingly embraced social issues – issues that he shares with his audience. Though politically independent, he is outspoken about his feeling that we as Americans ought to be paying closer attention to current events and their effect on America’s place in the world – and closer attention especially to the war in Iraq.
