Jessie Buckley, Maria Friedman and Tim Rice to Perform at Christmas Charity Concerts, 12/17 & 12/21

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Broadway stars Jessie Buckley and Maria Friedman and acclaimed Broadway composer Tim Rice will join the Cantabile vocal quartet in two Christmas concerts on December 17th and 21st. The concerts will benefit the Caron Keating Foundation. The concerts will be directed by Hugh Wooldridge and choreographed by Andrew Wright.

To benefit The Caron Keating Foundation, Cantabile - The London Quartet along with the 50-strong West End Chorus, The Pavao String Quartet, Stephen Disley (Organ), Stuart Morley (Conductor) and special guest solists and readers from the West End, including Jessie Buckley, Maria Friedman, and Tim Rice, host a fun family carol concert combining hilarious comedy and the purest choral harmonies.

Maria Friedman is the 3 time Olivier award winning and 7 time nominated star of The Woman In White, Chicago, Passion, The Witches Of Eastwick, Merrily We Roll Along, Ragtime, Lady In The Dark, Sunday In The Park With George and Blues In The Night. Her gift for interpretation has been demonstrated in the celebrated Maria Friedman By Special Arrangement (Donmar), Maria Friedman By Extra Special Arrangement (Whitehall), Maria Friedman Re-Arranged (Chocolate Menier) and her residency at New York's Cafe Carlyle.

Tim Rice is an English Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, author, radio personality and television gameshow panellist.He has collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, and his work for The Walt Disney Company with Alan Menken (Aladdin), Elton John (The Lion King). He also collaborated with Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA on Chess and with Rick Wakeman on the concept albums 1984 and Cost of Living.

Jessie Buckley competed in I'd Do Anything, a search for a new, unknown lead to play Nancy in a London West End stage revival of the British musical Oliver!. Buckley reached the final on 31 May 2008, finishing in second place behind Jodie Prenger. Before the final vote was announced in Show two of the final, Graham Norton asked the panel who they each thought was Nancy. Three of the panel said Buckley and two Prenger. Buckley performed at the Andrew Lloyd Webber's Birthday In The Park show in Hyde Park, London on 14 September 2008, singing "I Don't Know How To Love Him" as a solo and "Light At The End Of The Tunnel" from Starlight Express with fellow I'd Do Anything finalists Keisha Amposa Banson, Niamh Perry, Rachel Tucker as well as Any Dream Will Do finalists Daniel Boys, Lewis Bradley, Ben James-Ellis and Keith Jack. On 18 September she and Aoife Mulholland performed with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra at an Andrew Lloyd Webber evening at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. On 26 August 2008 Buckley performed on Denny Street in Tralee, Co. Kerry where the first ever Millionaire raffle was broadcasted live on RTE Radio 1. After this, Jessie performed at a charity concert in Tipperary, where she announced that she would be starting rehearals for A Little Night Music in London the following Monday.

Despite being offered to understudy Nancy, she turned it down in favour of another production: on 10 October 2008 it was announced that Buckley would be appearing in a revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music, in the role of Anne Egerman, at the Menier Chocolate Factory, a fringe Studio Theatre, in London from 22 November 2008 to 8 March 2009. She appeared alongside Maureen Lipman and Hannah Waddingham in the production, which was directed by Trevor Nunn. A Little Night Music transferred from the Menier Chocolate Factory to the Garrick Theatre in London's West End on 7 April 2009. A Little Night Music was Buckley's West End debut. The show closed on 25 July 2009.

The concert will take place at St. John's in Smith Square. The Cantabile Christmas Carol Concert will begin at 7:30pm. Tickets for the event may be purchased online at www.sjss.org.uk or by calling the box office at 020 7222 1061. For more information, email info@sjss.org.uk or boxoffice@sjss.org.uk.

Caron was first diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 1997 when she was in her mid 30's. At that time she was a much loved TV personality, having presented programmes such as Blue Peter, This Morning, Top of the Pops and Entertainment Today. She was happily married with two young sons, Charlie and Gabriel. After her diagnosis, she valiantly spent the next seven years fighting and managing the disease through a range of orthodox and complimentary cancer treatments. Her experiences were vast, and the support she received during that time were second to none. Caron learnt so much about the disease during her worldwide search for knowledge, as did her mother, Gloria Hunniford and indeed all the family. Sadly, Caron lost her tenacious battle with cancer in 2004 and subsequently the family set up a fund in Caron's name - The Caron Keating Foundation which gives grants to all types of cancer charities.

It seems that cancer has touched most people in the UK, through the experiences of friends, colleagues and family, and it has become a disease that no one can afford to ignore. Statistically, one in three of us will be diagnosed with cancer at some stage in our lives. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK with nearly 41,000 new cases diagnosed each year, claiming around 13,000 lives a year.

More frightening statistics show that every day, over 750 people in the UK are told they have some form of cancer, and if the current trend continues there will be more than five million more people diagnosed between now and 2020. There is however good news, with the advent of earlier detection and improved treatment and drugs, cancer death rates in the UK have fallen dramatically in the last ten years, and this trend will hopefully continue.

The Caron Keating Foundation makes a considerable difference to many individuals and families affected by cancer. It targets and financially assists small but significant cancer charities, professional carers and support groups. It is a family run Foundation with Gloria Hunniford as the administrator. The Foundation's only cost is one part-time secretary, with all the money raised going to cancer charities. In the Beneficiaries section there is a list detailing some of those charities we have given grants to since inception in October 2004.

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