A charity concert of classical music stars for construction of the Raisa M. Gorbachev Childhood Hematology and Transplantology Center in Saint Petersburg

     On March 2, Mikhail Gorbachev turns 75. To celebrate his birthday the Moscow International Performance Arts Center, also known as the Moscow International House of Music, on February 28, hosted a charity concert organized by the ARTist Foundation for Support of Classical Arts. Among those who have congratulated Mikhail Gorbachev are renowned singers Vladimir Redkin, Yelena Obraztsova, and Makvala Kasrashvili; leading ballet and opera performers from the Bolshoi Theater Nadezhda Gracheva, Galina Stepanenko, Anna Antonicheva and Vladimir Matorin; world-known pianists Andrey Gavrilov and Yury Rozum; and others. The performers called their present a “Tribute to Gorbachev.”
     All the proceeds from the concert will be used to equip the Raisa M. Gorbachev Childhood Hematology and Transplantology Center in Saint Petersburg. The million 12-storied building of the Center, the construction of which started in May 2002, has already been erected. Ten million dollars more are needed to equip the Center and another .5 million – to purchase the necessary medicines.
    The new medical center plans to take its first patients already in the end of this year.