from The Enquirer...A group of Cincinnati Country Day School students has enlisted Cincinnati native Nick Lachey and his choir in their efforts to raise money for an AIDS-wracked South African village.
Lachey will bring his 20-member Cincinnati choir, which won NBC reality show “Clash of the Choirs” on Dec. 20, to Music Hall’s ballroom to perform a benefit concert at 8 p.m. on Jan. 18.
Proceeds will go to help Langkloof, South Africa, an impoverished village that several Cincinnati Country Day School juniors have raised more than $950,000 for during the past four years.
Maya Amoils, a Cincinnati Country Day student who instigated the HOPE project, is thrilled that Lachey will be appearing with his “Team Lachey” choir.
“He postponed a trip to California for his grandmother’s 80th birthday to do this concert,” Amoils said. “It’s pretty amazing. And he’s doing it for free.”
Amoils first met Lachey through a friend of her father’s on Labor Day at a benefit concert for the School for the Creative and Performing Arts at the Great American Ball Park. She told him about Help Other People Endure, the non-profit group she and her friends formed to help Langkloof, and asked him about the possibility of his performing at a benefit concert.
Later, she gave her father’s friend a DVD and a brochure about the HOPE project to give to Lachey.
He first agreed to perform at a concert on Jan. 20, but had to cancel a couple of weeks ago because of a planned celebration for his grandmother’s 80th birthday in Los Angeles.
On Dec. 31, Amoils arranged the Jan. 18 date in a conference call with Lachey, who was in Costa Rica, and her father’s friend.
“I said, ‘Won’t that interfere with your trip for your grandmother’s birthday?,” Amoils said. “He said, ‘I’d be happy to push it back a day for you guys.’ He was unbelievably nice.”
It will be the first concert of Lachey and his choir since their victory on “Clash of the Choirs.” Team Lachey sang on Fountain Square on New Year’s Eve without Lachey.
Tickets for the Jan. 18 concert will cost $20 in advance and will be available at Music Hall’s box office or online at www.cincinnatiarts.org. Tickets will be $25 at door on the night of the concert. There will be 100 VIP tickets available for $100 each. VIP ticket-buyers will have seats in the front rows. The ballroom can hold as many as 1,300 people.
