Michelle Wu to Perform at NEMPAC’s 20th Anniversary Concert

Attendees of the North End Music & Performing Arts Center’s (NEMPAC) upcoming 20th Anniversary Concert at the TD Bank Garden will get a special performance from none other than Mayor Michelle Wu.

Wu, who lived in the North End while helping raise her sister, is a classically trained pianist and had a piano moved into her office after her inauguration in January.

“When my parents first came to this country, they didn’t speak English very well,” she once told WGBH. “Music was how they could still feel connected to the community here, despite language barriers, despite other cultural barriers. Music transcended everything. I’ve been playing piano since I was four or five years old, and it’s been a source of comfort, a source of strength, a source of just finding myself.”

NEMPAC’s 20th anniversary celebration at Big Night Live at TD Garden, will be held on Wednesday May 4. The concert will include a performance by Wu as well as performances by current and former NEMPAC students.

“We throw a birthday bash like this only once every five years”, said NEMPAC’s Executive Director Sherri Snow, “And this will be one for the records.”

Besides a stellar musical program that includes a performance by the Mayor, the guests of this celebration can look forward to culinary highlights and signature cocktails, a live auction, and a “buzzing and sizzling” after-party where they can dance the night away in true Roaring Twenties style. Twenties attire is not required, but strongly encouraged.

“May 4th marks the day when together we step into the future of music and performing arts”, saidNEMPAC’s Development Manager, Pamela Feo. “It will be an evening not to be missed.”

Ticket sales for this outstanding event are opening today and for more information visit www.nempacboston.org.

NEMPAC will also honor several supporters and staff during the celebration. Each honoree will receive a very special recognition for their exemplary and tireless support of NEMPAC and community arts, helping to fill the city of Boston with creativity, spark connections, and share the gift of music with Boston’s communities.

The honorees are Chair of Ways & Means and State Representative, Aaron Michlewitz; member of NEMPAC’s Board of Directors and long-standing supporter of the community arts scene, Andrea Waldstein; and NEMPAC Opera Project Artistic Director & Stage Director and NEMPAC Faculty member, Alexandra Dietrich.

In 2001, five North End mothers launched NEMPAC out of their homes to give their daughters and sons the opportunity to pursue private piano instruction. By listening to, empathizing with, and meeting a community need for youth instrument lessons, the nonprofit’s female founders banded together to make music an approachable art form for the children of Boston’s Little Italy. “Fast forward nearly two decades later, and NEMPAC continues to flourish at the intersection of arts education and professional performance,” said Snow. “NEMPAC’s community music school nurtures the next generation of artists through in-house education courses, private and group music instruction, as well as on-site arts programming in area schools.”