Pacific Symphony musicians to play for donors

Musicians from the Pacific Symphony and friends will be serenading donors at the second annual Musical Blood & Marrow Drive in Corona del Mar from noon to 6 p.m. April 29.

The event at the Newport Center United Methodist Church, 1601 Marguerite Ave., benefits both the Red Cross and Be the Match, a national bone narrow and umbilical cord blood registry helping patients affected with diseases like leukemia and lymphoma.

Blood donors for the Red Cross need to sign up in advance with a link available at PacificSymphonyMusicians.com. Walk-ins will be accepted for Be the Match after a series of health questions, cheek swab and signing a consent form.

Donors receive free tickets to a summer Pacific Symphony concert at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine.

The drive’s musical lineup includes the Pacific Symphony’s new principal flutist Mercedes Smith and a string quartet with violinists Alice Wrate and Nancy Eldridge, violist Meredith Crawford and cellist Laszlo Mezo.

—Bradley Zint