The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Opera Studio & Choral Academy’s (OSCA) Benefit Concert 2007 – a collaborative social responsibility project between event organizers HotHouse South Africa and Free Your Mind Productions and media/PR partner, Blue Planet Media – is a prime example of corporate South Africa’s involvement in the arts.

The event – to be held at Summer Place in Johannesburg on October 17 – has now attracted more than 30 corporate players including Silver Sponsor, the Gallo Music Group and Bronze Sponsor, Enterprise IG.

“Sponsorship opportunities - packaged to provide businesses with marketing value through brand exposure, collateral material and advertising - have provided sponsors with the unique opportunity to increase their visibility in the arts and educational arenas, raise interest in their brands, and to support the rich talent entering into and emerging from OSCA,” says Jason Aarons of Blue Planet Media.

“The Benefit Concert also affords them occasion to profile themselves in front of key decision makers from across South Africa and further afield. Donations of relevant goods and services, and financial contributions have assisted in reducing operating costs, and in so doing, have enabled organizers to allocate substantially more funds to the pressing needs of OSCA and the students themselves.”

The third in a series of outstanding benefit concerts – previously staged in London and New York, the Johannesburg event will feature performances by some of the country’s brightest operatic stars from The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Opera Studio and Choral Academy, and by internationally acclaimed soprano Bronwen Forbay – winner of the 2007 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Music. Hosted by internationally renowned musicologist, former chief opera and music critic to the London Financial Times, and associate editor of Opera magazine Max Loppert and his wife OSCA co-founder Delayne Loppert.

For more information about the event visit www.oscabenefitconcert.co.za