photo via Getty Images for Tibet House
On Thursday evening, New York’s famed Carnegie Hall once again hosted the annual Tibet House US Benefit Concert, featuring another star-studded cast of musicians and performers, including the event’s curator, pianist and composer Phillip Glass, plus Patti Smith—a staple at the annual event—Jason Isbell, Nathaniel Rateliff, Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Jon Batiste, Stephen Colbert, Angélique Kidjo, Debbie Harry and more.
The 32nd annual benefit celebrated the Tibetan New Year and featured highlights like Colbert offering a reading of Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Birdbrain” with Glass on piano accompaniment, Rateliff and Batiste teaming up for a cover of Sam & Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Coming,” Rateliff’s own cover of Bruce Springsteen’s classic “Atlantic City,” Harry playing a modern take of her Blondie hit “Heart of Glass” with the Scorchio Quartet strings, Isbell celebrating his seven years of sobriety, Smith’s surprise appearance that featured covers of Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush” and Midnight Oil’s “Beds Are Burning,” Laurie Anderson getting the entire Hall to scream together, New Order’s cover of David Bowie’s “Be My Wife” and more, including a night-closing collaboration featuring most of the event’s performers coming together on stage for a Kidjo-led take on Talking Heads’ “Once In a Lifetime.”
The annual benefit raises money and awareness for NYC’s Tibet House US, which was founded in 1987 at the request of the Dalai Lama and continues to strive to maintain and protect Tibetan culture.
1 Comment comments associated with this post
Jim
February 11, 2019 at 9:03 amWhy not. A culture based on peace, passivity and trying to be eliminated by one one the biggest human rights violators on earth should be supported. The world would be so much less without Tibetans and what they stand for. But let’s keep buying Chinese products and supporting China’s attempted genocide of Tibetans and its culture.