Fort Lee Nonprofit Group to Host Benefit Concert for Japan

A Fort Lee-based nonprofit group that works with young, talented and prodigious musicians, is hosting a benefit concert and cocktail hour at Fort Lee’s Doubletree Hotel Friday to support earthquake relief in Japan.

“Sending Our Love to Japan,” sponsored by the Japan-U.S. Alliance of New Jersey, the Japanese American Society of New Jersey and Motai Advisors, LLC and hosted by the Fort Lee-based Doublestop Foundation, will feature performances by one of the foundation’s own prodigies and several other prominent musicians, including Michelle Kim, assistant Concertmaster of The New York Philharmonic and Doublestop’s president.

Fort Lee resident and Chief Operating Officer of Doublestop Foundation, Ellie Sturrock, who runs the nonprofit with Kim, said the foundation “[unites] young, talented, promising string instrument players—violin and cello—with Stradivarius and other high-end instruments, and in turn, we expect them to go out and perform for organizations that have humanitarian causes.”

She said that when she was approached by sponsors to help with Friday’s event in Fort Lee, it wasn’t a difficult decision, given her background.

“A lot of people joined forces to raise funds and help,” Sturrock said. “When the thing with Japan happened, my family has a very close affiliation there. My grandfather has a home in Japan.”

Sturrock said that though she is of Taiwanese descent, she was raised in a “predominantly Japanese-based” home, because her family lived in Taiwan when Japan occupied the islands.

“So when the earthquake hit and tsunami hit, of course it affected everyone in the world in various different ways, but it also affected me as well,” she said.

Performing Friday at the Doubletree will be the following musicians:

• Qingyn Yu Chen, a 10-year-old violinist from Queens and one of Doublestop’s prodigies

“She’ll be playing on a Vuillaume, which is a very, very rare and expensive violin,” Sturrock said.

• Michelle Kim, assistant Concertmaster of The New York Philharmonic and president of Doublestop Foundation

• David Matthews, a Grammy award winning jazz artist

• Gay Willis, an award-winning soprano and Broadway star

• Richard Bascomb and Phase One Band, described by Doublestop as, “one of the most sought after bands in the area. Rich Bascomb leads his orchestra through the great dance hits of the last six decades with great style and polish.”

• Yukio Koma, who plays the Shamisen, a traditional Japanese three-string instrument

Sturrock said Koma has a very personal connection to the tragedy in Japan, having lost eight family members, including his mother, in the tsunami.

Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich will also be speaking at the event along with other VIPs, including Kazutoshi Aikawa of the Japan Mission to the United Nations, a specialist in political and legal affairs at the UN, according to Sturrock, who just finished producing a concert in New York last week and said she has two Carnegie Hall concerts coming up later this year.

“What’s important [about Friday’s event] is Japan,” she said.

Sturrock said all of the proceeds raised from “Sending Our Love to Japan” will go to two specific non-profit organizations in Japan: Megumi, which she said is “closely tied to working with the children,” and Iwate Prefecture Disaster Relief Charity.

Sturrock described Japan’s Iwate Prefecture as “one of the hardest hit areas from the earthquake and tsunami [and] closest to the epicenter.”

“Sending Our Love to Japan” is Friday from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Doubletree Hotel in Fort Lee. Tickets are $100 and include food and drinks. Registration is available through the event’s Facebook page.

Donations can also be sent to "Doublestop Foundation" at 96 Linwood Plaza #119, Fort Lee, NJ 07024.