Broadway and folk music legend Theodore Bikel to be saluted at Carnegie Hall June 15, 2009

WHAT:
“Theodore Bikel: The First 85 Years” – Broadway and folk music legend Theodore Bikel, a lifelong social justice advocate, will celebrate a rich career devoted to art and activism with a star-studded 85th birthday benefit concert at Carnegie Hall. All proceeds will go to the Juvenile Law Center.

Confirmed performers to-date include: Theodore Bikel, Alan Alda, Arlo Guthrie, Rosemary Harris, David Amram, Beyond the Pale, Artie Butler, Patricia Conolly, Judy Kaye, David Krakauer, Tom Paxton, Serendipity 4 (Shura Lipovsky, Merima Kljuco, Tamara Brooks, and Theodore Bikel), Noel Paul Stookey and Peter Yarrow, Susan Werner, Michael Wex.

The concert will benefit Juvenile Law Center (www.jlc.org), the pioneering, non-profit law firm dedicated to protecting the rights and well-being of children in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

Bikel made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1956 and went on to forge an extraordinary career as a musician, actor and activist. His stage and screen credits include such classic films as The African Queen and The Defiant Ones and the 1959 Broadway premiere of The Sound of Music, in which he originated the role of Captain Von Trapp. He has performed the role of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof more than 2,000 times and is currently starring in a national tour of Sholom Aleichem: Laughter through Tears.

A leading light in the folk-music scene of the 1960s, Bikel was a co-founder of the Newport Folk Festival and has been a powerful advocate for peace, human rights, and social justice for more than five decades – from the civil rights movements in the United States to apartheid in South Africa to promoting peace and religious pluralism among Israel and its neighbors.

All proceeds from the concert will go to Juvenile Law Center, which works to protect children’s rights and interests in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Juvenile Law Center, which provides legal services at no cost to its clients, is currently heading litigation in the Luzerne County, Pennsylvania judges scandal, a court corruption case that has made international news as one of the most egregious violations of children's rights in U.S. legal history.

Official Website: http://www.jlc.org/bikel