Concert to Raise Funds for Opera Singer's Cancer Treatment

An acclaimed opera singer suffering from throat cancer is getting some help from his devoted friends and fans, who are throwing a Mozart benefit concert in Manhattan this week to help raise money for his treatment.

The cancer has reduced 40-year-old John Young's voice to a whisper.

“I’ve been singing all of my life. If I can’t sing again, what am I going to do?” Young told the Daily News from his bed at Beth Israel Medical Center. 

The concert is set to start at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Trinity Church, located at 74 Trinity Place in Manhattan, and will feature the Trinity Choir and Trinity Baroque Orchestra.

Young lacks health insurance and needs $22,000 for life-saving radiation therapy. Singer Douglas Purcell, 47, has raised $15,000 for Young’s medical needs through a Web site he launched, youngfightingcancer.com.

Admission for the benefit concert at Trinity Church is $25 for general seating, $50 for reserved seating, $100 for premium seating and $250 to $1,000 for VIP seating.

Young lives in Ridgewood, Queens, and has appeared with the Bronx Opera and the Regina Opera Company in Brooklyn. Before moving to New York, he performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He has also sung in Europe, including at the prestigious Edinburgh Festival in La Didone.
 

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