Madison West High School counselor Len Mormino has been a musician most of his life, playing piano as a kid and cutting his teeth as a songwriter here in Madison, but he never dreamed he'd have a global impact.
As coordinator of the Madison for World Health project, he's trying to knock the wind out of three dire threats to global health: AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Unlike many other global health campaigns, this one hinges on local efforts: the community-building power of Madison musicians and their fans' willingness to contribute time, money and ideas.
Mormino's managed to rally a diverse set of local folks around a common cause due in large part to his enthusiasm about the arts' capacity to spark social change.
"It's easy to take for granted the creative gifts you have, get sucked into your job and think your niche in life is carved out, but people do have something bigger to contribute," he says. "It's just a matter of encouraging them."
The idea for Madison for World Health materialized in 2006, when Mormino and his wife were watching an episode of Oprah in which U2's Bono stumped for the Global Fund's Red Campaign. Mormino admits that the source of his inspiration is, well, a little bit embarrassing, but is thankful that it got him off the couch.
"The show taught my wife and me something we didn't know before, that these diseases - AIDS, TB and malaria - have their greatest impact in sub-Saharan Africa. The statistics are just shocking - for example, 3,000 people, most of them children, die each day from malaria there, and TB is the leading killer of people with HIV and AIDS - so we decided we didn't want to be spectators anymore."
The statistics don't end there: Mormino did some research and discovered that $5 can buy someone the mosquito netting necessary to avoid the disease and that $10 can provide a child with DOTS, a widely effective malaria treatment.
Mormino realized that a benefit concert with a $15 ticket price could provide those in need with both of these items. However, this was only the half of it: He also resolved to tap into local musicians' power to educate - something that could benefit both them and their fans.
"Giving [globally] is so important and hard to justify with all that's going on our own country - and in Madison - but there's a level of pain and suffering going on in Africa that none of us will ever witness here," he says. "We need to be conscious of that and make it part of our daily lives to understand it better and raise awareness."
The most effective way to use the local music scene, it seemed, wasn't by organizing TV appearances but by encouraging artists to create songs that are specific to the topic.
One fact in particular - that every 14 seconds a child is orphaned by AIDS - got numerous Madison musicians to sign on for the concert and compose songs devoted to educating the community about the disease's global impact. These songs have been compiled on the Madison for World Health CD, also $15, which is available at local retailers, as well as through the project's website, The CD also includes songs by Leo Sidran, Amy Curl and Dan Kennedy, and Marques Bovre, among others. In addition to featuring Schwall, Croft, Bovre and many of the performers from the CD, the concert will include performances by the UW's African Dance Club and the West High School choir, plus an after-concert dance party with music by Emmettville. All money raised from the concert and CD will benefit the Global Fund, an international effort to eradicate AIDS, TB and malaria, as well as the AIDS Network, a local organization working to prevent the disease and support those in the community who have it.