Durango Herald, CO
March 18 2005
Concert to benefit Armenian family
Herald staff report
Ouray will hold a benefit concert Saturday for the Sargsyan family.
Their supporters fear that five members of this Armenian family face
deportation to their home country where the Russian Mafia may cause
them harm.
The money raised will help with the family’s legal defense fund.
Ridgway singer/songwriter Leigh Ann Phillips and cellist Mark Dudrow
will provide the music. The Sargsyan family is preparing Armenian
desserts. Tickets are $10 adults/ $5 children; larger donations are
encouraged.
So far, determined residents of Ouray County have raised more than
$70,000. All expenses and advertising for the event have been donated
by community members and the Ouray Performing Arts Guild.
If you go
A benefit concert for the Sargsyan family of Ridgway is scheduled for
7 p.m. Saturday in Condor Hall of Ridgway School. Read about the
family’s plight and the concert at
Phillips is a singer, composer and pianist. She was classically
trained in voice and piano, attending Boston University and
Tanglewood Institute for voice. Her CD, “Just Over Those Mountains,”
was released in 2004, and the title track won the 2004 Silverton
Jubilee Songwriting Competition.
Dudrow has played and recorded with the San Juan Symphony Orchestra.
He has also been a featured artist in the “Fiddling While Rome Burns”
Ice Music Festival, playing cellos made of ice.