Donald Bren benefit concert set for Segerstrom on Tuesday

Nearly 700 Irvine students will take the Renée & Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall stage in Costa Mesa Tuesday to perform and raise money for their music programs.

The 34th annual Donald Bren Honors Concert at the concert hall in Segerstrom Center for the Arts will feature the vocal and instrumental stylings of students in grade 5-12.

The event, presented by the Irvine Public Schools Foundation and Irvine Unified, will dedicate its proceeds to the school district’s visual and performing arts department.

“For more than a generation, outstanding vocal and instrumental musicians have been afforded a remarkable opportunity through the Donald Bren Honors Concert,” Neda Eaton, the foundation’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “Every student who studies music wins because it helps build self-confidence, provides a creative way to explore the world and even improves language, reasoning and mathematics skills.”

The performers, each of whom is a students in the Irvine district, were selected to participate in the concert through an audition process.

Sophie Huisken, a Woodbridge High School senior, will sing for the second year in a row.

“It’s been great to have the past two years to get together with the amazing and talented students who go to the schools in our district,” Sophie said. “It’s a chance to be surrounded by people who support music.”

The young performer, who’s been involved in music programs since she was a fourth-grader at Eastshore Elementary School in Irvine, said her years singing and playing the cello, baritone and tuba have given her confidence.

Performances will be organized into elementary, middle and high school groups. The event will conclude with all the students joined together for the finale.

The Donald Bren Honors Concert is open to the public.

For tickets, visit scfta.org/Events/Detail.aspx?id=14706.