Soprano Beverly Owens, well known throughout the area for her solo and choir performances, will perform a special Sarah Vaughan Tribute concert as part of Daniel Pearl World Music Days on Wednesday, Oct. 26 in East Brunswick. The concert is free and will be hosted by Temple B'nai Shalom, 15 Fern Road, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Daniel Pearl World Music Days was created in response to the kidnapping and murder in early 2002 of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl at the hands of extremists in Karachi, Pakistan. Pearl was a talented musician who joined musical groups in every community in which he lived, leaving behind a long trail of musician-friends spanning the entire globe. Commemorating his October 10th birthday, World Music Days uses the universal language of music to encourage fellowship across cultures and build a platform of “harmony for humanity.”

East Brunswick is home to the Daniel Pearl Education Center (DPEC), a non-profit, charitable organization committed to the ideals of understanding and community. The DPEC sponsors a number of area programs and activities, including an annual trip to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum for Temple B’nai Shalom’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah class, the eighth grade class at East Brunswick’s St. Bartholomew’s parochial school, and other youth groups; Daniel Pearl scholarships to graduating seniors at East Brunswick High School; teacher training workshops; a speaker series; and much more. Owens' concert marks the 12th free Daniel Pearl World Music Days concert hosted by the DPEC.

"These concerts always mean a great deal to us," said Dr. Andy Boyarsky, chairman of the Daniel Pearl Education Center. "Danny's quest for community and understanding, and his belief in music as a way to bring people together, always resonates, especially in the difficult and challenging times in which we live."

Owens will bring her impressive voice and performing artistry in honoring the legendary Vaughan. Owens has performed at Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall and has sung under esteemed conductors Robert Shaw and Wolfgang Sawallisch. She holds a master’s degree from Westminster Choir College of Rider University and is music director at historic Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton, where Paul Robeson’s father preached.

She will be accompanied by Diane Goldsmith, who is in high demand as a piano soloist, vocal accompanist and chamber musician. She’s won praise for performances in Lincoln Center, Carnegie Recital Hall and the Smithsonian American Art Museum and has been a classical and jazz music critic and arts and entertainment editor for major newspapers.

"I have heard Beverly sing many times," Boyarsky said, "and her Sarah Vaughan songs are always my favorite. Concert-goers are in for a real treat. Beverly is as good as you get, and she is performing, along with the exceptional Diane Goldsmith, to honor the blessed memory of Daniel Pearl."