Pass The MIC: The Music In Common Gala Amplifies Young Voices
The evening honored one of MIC's biggest supporters, Elaine Mack.
Elaine and Steve Mack with Elaine and Joe Goldstein
Music in Common (MIC)'s Executive Director, Todd Mack, started the nonprofit organization in 2005 as a tribute to his friend and bandmate, the journalist Daniel Pearl. Since then, MIC has facilitated hundreds of programs for thousands of young people in more than 250 communities across the US, Middle East and Far East. The programs use songwriting and performing to fight hate, bringing together those of different faiths, backgrounds and nationalities (including immigrants, refugees and American-born citizens) to create music while building tolerance. This year’s MIC fundraising gala, held on Sunday, July 21 at Berkshire School in Sheffield, Mass., honored one of its founding board members and biggest supporters, Mack’s mother Elaine. The evening included a performance by eight young people, aged 15-20, from MIC’s 2019 Amplify program. The students — singers, guitar players, a keyboardist and a drummer from the Berkshires, Iowa, Connecticut and California — showcased songs written by past participants as well as one they had written together during their just completed two-week program.
![Amplify 2019 students were joined by some of the program's 2018 students [front row] for the last two songs of the evening.](https://www.ruralintelligence.com/content/images/2025/11/mic_students_group_shot-1.jpg "Amplify 2019 students were joined by some of the program's 2018 students [front row] for the last two songs of the evening.")
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Matteline deVries-Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon, one of the evening's honoree of this year's Upstate Benefit adresses the gala from the Caboose's caboose.
- Karen Pearson. Courtesy Art Omi.
Olana senior vice president and landscape curatorMark Prezorski, president Sean Sawyer, The evenings honoree Kristin Gamble and New York State Assemblymember Didi Barrett.
- Oxygen House Photo
