Taye Diggs Joins The Yale Whiffenpoofs for CONCERT TO END BULLYING at Palace of Fine Arts Tonight

CONCERT TO END BULLYING, a benefit performance featuring the nation's premier vocal group and stage and screen star Taye Diggs - best known for his roles on ABC-TV's "Private Practice" and on Broadway and feature film versions of Rent - will take place tonight, April 20, 2013 at The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

Presented by the Association of Yale Alumni and the Yale Whiffenpoofs Alumni Association the evening will benefit New Conservatory Theatre Center's YouthAware program. The Yale Whiffenpoofs, the Stanford Mendicants and special guest Taye Diggs will perform a cappella and choral renditions of American jazz classics, contemporary pop-hits, and more.

Sponsors for the event include Union Bank, Wells Fargo, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants and Gibson Dunn. The host committee includes Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, Alvin Baum and Robert Holgate, District Attorney George Gascón, Sharon Gless, Jewelle Gomez and Diane Sabin, Peter and Bonnie Hero, Kate Kendell and Sandy Holmes, Senator Mark Leno, Terrence McNally and Tom Kirdahy, Alan Pardini and Ken Noyes, Yigit Pura, Jan Wahl, Leonie Walker and Kate O'Hanlan, MD and Supervisor Scott Weiner. Enrique Monagas and Brigette Thomas serve at Benefit Co-chairs.

This is one of three annual benefit concerts produced in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco by the Association of Yale Alumni and the Yale Whiffenpoofs, it brings together the talents and resources of notable alumni and student groups from Yale. Previous celebrity guest-performers have included Idina Menzel, Deborah Cox, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Darren Criss, Zooey Deschanel, Christine Ebersole and Jesse Tyler Ferguson.

The concert is set for tonight, April 20th, 2013, 8:00 PM at The Palace of Fine Arts, 3301 Lyon Street, San Francisco, Calif. Tickets: $25 to $150, with VIP Packages available. Call (800) 595-4849 or visit AYAYALE.TIX.COM.

For more than 30 years, the New Conservatory Theater Center (NCTC) has been at the forefront of addressing pressing social issues through theater. One of their core programs is YouthAware, which uses theatre as the medium to address health and wellness issues critical to young people today such as bullying, drug and alcohol abuse, and homophobia. Proceeds from the CONCERT TO END BULLYING will bring this vital program to more than 20,000 Bay Area children.

In the summer of 2010, the Yale Whiffenpoofs performed at an Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation HIV clinic in Kenya and, inspired by the organization's work, pledged to support their critical efforts. The Association of Yale Alumni (AYA) was eager to help. It constantly calls upon alumni to effect change in their communities through programs like the annual International Day of Service, Summer Institute for the Arts, Yale Alumni Service Corps, and regular local service. While each initiative provides needed volunteers for numerous organizations around the globe, in this economic climate organizations are in dire need of not only personnel, but also financial assistance. Therefore, AYA fills this need by leveraging Yale talent and connections to host benefit concerts in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, raising tens of thousands of dollars for causes like arts education and combating school bullying. The Whiffenpoofs are proud to partner with AYA in supporting these important causes.

30 years ago, Ed Decker, a graduate of San Francisco State University and former Director of The American Conservatory Theatre Young Conservatory, founded the New Conservatory Theatre as a non-profit theatre arts conservatory for low-income youth. Moved in 1986 by the proliferation of AIDS, Decker created the YouthAware Program, a touring educational theater program who hoped to use theater to educate young people in their community and beyond about the AIDS epidemic and prevention. Since its founding, the Youth Aware Program has expanded to address an array of health and wellness concerns, and has reached more than 4.5 million youth across the U.S., Germany, Australia, South Africa, Holland, and the U.K. Ed Decker and Youth Aware have received numerous awards and honors, including a 2004 STOP AIDS honor and the 2008 Jefferson Award for Public Service. They continue to perform and conduct workshops in schools, community centers, shelters and juvenile justice facilities across Northern California.

Actor, singer, dancer, and entertainer Taye Diggs has distinguished himself as one of this generation's most sought after performers. After exploding onto the stage as Benny in the original Broadway production of Rent, Diggs has glided effortlessly from stage to film to television screen. Today, Diggs can be seen on ABC's "Private Practice" as Dr. Sam Bennett.

Every year, 14 senior Yale men are selected to be in the Whiffenpoofs, the world's oldest and most famous collegiate a cappella group. Founded in 1909, the "Whiffs" began as a senior quartet that met for weekly concerts at Mory's Temple Bar, the famous Yale tavern. Today, the group has become one of Yale's most celebrated and hallowed traditions, maintaining a performance schedule of 150-200 concerts annually in addition to recording an album and embarking on a three-month, twenty-five country world tour. The group has performed for the likes of Presidents Bush 1, Bush 2, and Clinton, Mother Teresa, Ella Fitzgerald, Gladys Knight, and Elvis Presley, in sold- out venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center, and for such events as the Rose Bowl, "SNL", "The Today Show", "The West Wing", and NBC's "The Sing-Off."

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