9th Annual
WE ARE OAKLAND
community benefit concert
Friday, May 2, 2025
On Friday, May 2, 2025, a group of artists came together to create another successful WE ARE OAKLAND community benefit concert. It was our most ambitious concert to date with solo performances, duets, our resident woodwind choir with over 16 different instruments, a string quartet from Opus Oakland, and three separate choirs – Skyline High School Choir, Oakland Tech Drama, and Trinity Music Ministry! The singers all joined together for the final number and it was glorious.
We had an incredible in-person turnout, and we also live-streamed the event. You can watch this or any past concert on our WE ARE OAKLAND Concert YouTube Channel (@WeAreOaklandConcert). Be sure to hit the “Subscribe” button to be notified whenever we have new content!
Thanks to generous support from our friends, families and community, we raised $9,108 for SOS/Meals on Wheels and CityTeam Oakland!
That means that since our first concert in 2017, we’ve raised over $103,800 to help those in our community who need it most. Thank you for helping to make this support possible!
Until next time,
the WE ARE OAKLAND Team
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Donate Online by PayPal:
Donate by Zelle:
Recipient: Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church
Email address: acctg.trinitylutheran650@gmail.com
Memo: “Benefit”
How to Attend:
In-person
Trinity Lutheran Church
650 Alma Ave
Oakland, CA
Livestream
YouTube
Featuring
Tanika Baptiste
Larry De La Cruz
Will Berg
Amar Khalsa
Carolyn Walter
Sound of Yuè
Lyn Patterson
DC Scarpelli
Peter Budinger
Opus Oakland
Amie Shapiro
Skyline High School Choir
Dietrich Erbelding
Julie Queen
Oakland Technical High School Drama
Markaila Dyson
Kaylee Miltersen
Marcus Dyson
Gretchen Lebold
Gayle Miller
Marilyn Vartia
Beth Elliott
Ed Marsh
Gayle Johnson
Eric Vartia
Amanda Nguyen
Kyle Wong
Rianna Samone
Yvonne Johnson
Jon Gallo
Join our Mailing List
— past events —
Featuring:
Amar Khalsa
Angel Adedokun
April Ballesteros
Barry Zuckerman
Beth Elliott
Carolyn Walter
Danielle Cheiken
DC Scarpelli
Dietrich Erbelding
Ed Marsh
Gayle Johnson
Gayle Miller
Gretchen Lebold
Jocelyn (JoJo) Thompson-Jordan
Jon Gallo
Kyle Wong
Larry De La Cruz
Lyn Patterson
Maria Long
Markaila Dyson
Nancy Hughes
Peter Budinger
Rianna Samone
Victoria Perenyi
Will Berg
AND
Aejay Mitchell, emcee
___
spring benefit 2024
Friday, May 17, 2024
THAT’S OUR SHOW! Thanks to all our performers, everyone working behind the scenes, and to you, our audience, for spending your night with us.
Brightside Barbell, who committed to do 10 burpees for every $1000 raised, hosted a workout fundraiser in June and raised an additional $475 for SOS Meals on Wheels in collaboration with our concert! This brings our final total to $10,176!
Some of the We Are Oakland Concert team attended the workout and completed the 97 burpee challenge (for $9,701 raised). It was a great time and a fun opportunity to collaborate with a nearby small business and community partner.
Thank you all!
Livestream
YouTube
Facebook
Featuring
Angel Adedokun
April Ballesteros
Beth Elliott
Dietrich Erbelding
Taylor Gonzalez
Phillip Harris
Tania Johnson
Jocelyn “Jojo” Thompson-Jordan
Miranda Long
Aejay Mitchell
Iruz Montgomery
Vinh Nguyen
Amie Shapiro
Christina Owens Walton
Kyle Wong
Woodwind Choir (Will Berg, Larry De La Cruz, Amar Khalsa, Carolyn Walter)
Trinity Music Ministry (Gretchen Lebold, Gayle Miller, Beth Elliott, Ed Marsh, Gayle Johnson, Greg Klein, Nancy Hughes; Jon Gallo, music director)
Skyline High School Choir (Jazzlyn R. Alberto, Melody Blankman, Tammy Cai, Toby Flores Galdamez, Kari Ly, AJ Canon, Nailah Davis, Syrenadi Jackson, Jessenia Martinez Estrella, Sam Moir, Lon’ja Mustafa, Marie Niang, Victoria Pham, Emmet Slater, Lysander Manle, Peter Bank, John Delgado Cervantes, Jacob Irving, Enrique Nunez-Souto Maior; Rob Finucane, pianist; Adam Green, music director)
and
Jill Jacobs, Emcee
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holiday benefit 2023
spring benefit 2023
Thank you for supporting our WE ARE OAKLAND Benefit Concert on Friday, June 2, 2023! We had a great turnout at Trinity Lutheran Church and lots of amazing talent (as usual!). We also live-streamed the concert to increase the visibility of our event and cause and it went well! We were able to raise $7,623 for the Mental Health Association of Alameda County (MHAAC), a nonprofit that advocates for individuals with mental illness, supports and educates their family caregivers, and offers free mental health resources to the residents of Alameda County! That’s a new record for us and we are so thankful to everyone who made it possible.
Special thanks to Kathryn Davies Huber and the team from MHAAC for sharing at our event, Joseph Ham-Silvestre for hosting, Kyle Wong for running the live stream and stage managing, Taylor Gonzalez for running the sound, DC Scarpelli for graphic design, and Yvonne Johnson and Binky Bilse for coordinating the reception. A very special thank you to our performers for sharing their time and talent, and to our audience for your attendance and support. See you again in December!
holiday benefit 2022
We had 26 amazing artists contribute their time and talents to our Holiday Benefit Concert on Saturday, Dec 17, 2022! Thanks to your generosity and support, we were able to send a check for $7,354 to the Alameda County Community Food Bank. Thank you!