Concerts For A Cause Provides More Than Music

Musicians Doug Casteen, Jason Adamo, and Ernie Halter pose with a fan at a Concerts for a Cause show on February 15. Proceeds benefited Elevate Indy.

IT’S BEEN FIVE years since accomplished singer-songwriter Liz Longley was scheduled to play a much-anticipated show in Indianapolis.

But the show never happened.

“This is a show I’d been looking forward to for a while,” Longley tells Indianapolis Monthly in a recent interview about its cancelation, along with countless others, during the dreadful days of the pandemic.

And while both her personal and professional lives have grown exponentially since that canceled gig five years ago, Longley says this was the one event she was determined to revive—because it was for Indianapolis-based Concerts for a Cause.

“I just love this whole concept and the way that music can create a space where we can all come together and do something for good … and also feel good doing it,” explains Longley. In the past nine years, Concerts for a Cause has raised nearly $900,000 for Indianapolis area nonprofits improving the lives of Hoosiers in need.

Specifically, Longley’s May 3 show at The Indianapolis Art Center will raise money for Coburn Place, an organization that provides support and safe housing options for survivors of domestic violence and their children. “It seems like an incredible cause,” Longley says. “I mean, as a new mom myself, just imagining being in that situation with your kids and needing a safe space—the greatest gift to give someone is somewhere safe to be.”

Perhaps another one of life’s greatest gifts is music. An intense love of music ultimately inspired longtime Indianapolis-area resident and business executive Bruce Kidd to create Concerts for a Cause back in 2016.

“I grew up in a family in which my parents taught me the value of giving back. Everybody takes care of everybody they can, and it’ll be a better world,” Kidd says. “I also have been a music fan my whole life and I truly have an affinity for singer-songwriters such as Liz, who are wonderful artists and can inspire and move us with the words they use and the music they compose. I’ve always believed that music is the universal language of hope and joy.”

Hope and joy resound at Concert for a Cause shows—for both the audiences and the artists.

“[The artists] are always moved by the passion in the room and the excitement in the room,” reflects Kidd. “And then when the check is delivered, it’s pretty cool to see what that means to these organizations. It’s a meaningful amount of money for them. Plus, the artists love it. They just love being a part of it.”

Just ask Liz Longley.

“I’m a very sensitive person and I care so much about the wellbeing of others. I think that’s how I got into music to begin with,” she shares. “So to be able to do something that helps people is the absolute best.”

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