Rubin and Taira to play fundraiser

Singer Laurie Rubin has performed in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Wigmore Hall, a well-known chamber music theater in London.

The mezzo-soprano also enjoys performing for private audiences, joining pianist Jennifer Taira to give several performances over the past year in homes around Oahu. Rubin says it creates a sense of intimacy she can appreciate in a special way, since she has been blind since birth.

Today, she and Taira will perform at Laulima Women’s House as part of a series of performances sponsored by Ohana Arts, a nonprofit arts organization they co-founded last year. The concert will be "in the style of a French salon," Rubin said. "All of these important people would gather with their friends, so you’d have people like Jean Cocteau would be there with Poulenc … and the other kahunas, I guess they would call them here, and they would share their art together."

Rubin and Taira will perform songs by Fauré, Poulenc, Bizet and Viardot, as well as Broadway hits by Sondheim, Bernstein and Gershwin. The performance is a fundraiser for a music festival that Ohana Arts is presenting in November. The afternoon will include a silent auction, a raffle and light refreshments.

The recital is at 5 p.m. Laulima Women’s House is at 1802 Keeaumoku St. Admission is $30.

Golf tourney to help marrow registry

The Hawaii Bone Marrow Donor Registry will hold its inaugural golf tournament Sept. 2 at the Hawaii Prince Golf Club in Ewa Beach.

The event is to help raise funds and awareness for the organization, which recruits and registers potential bone marrow donors.

A buffet dinner will follow the tournament, with entertainment by Hoku Award-winning singer-songwriter Ben Vegas.

The entry fee is $150 per player, using a three-person team scramble format. Check-in is at 9 a.m., with the shotgun start at 11 a.m. Checks should be made payable to the Hawaii Medical Center Foundation.

For more information, email hbmdrgolftournament@gmail.com.

Since 1989 the registry has recruited approximately 78,000 registered donors throughout Hawaii, Guam and American Samoa. More than 328 of those donors ended up donating bone marrow or blood stem cells for patients all over the world.

To learn more about the national marrow donor program, visit bethematch.org.