A Concert for a Cause: Elliott Scholar Jose Aguilar Turns Music into Action for HOPe
Read the concert program, including an overview of compositions and musicians >>
The concert took place on Saturday, August 8, 2026.
In June, Jose Aguilar found himself in Salta, Argentina, at a joint birthday party for a group of local children battling cancer. Aguilar, a second-year student studying Clarinet Performance at the Bienen School of Music and Political Science at the Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences at Northwestern University, was playing the clarinet section of “You Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story for the children when inspiration struck. How could a charity concert for Fundación HOPe, the Salta-based nonprofit supporting youth battling cancer and their families, rally the community around their mission?
Aguilar became an intern at HOPe through the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs’ Elliott Scholars Program, a two-course sequence on international development followed by an international summer internship opportunity through the Global Engagement Studies Institute (GESI). GESI is designed and administered by Northwestern’s Global Learning Office (GLO).
“They can't have a birthday party for each kid, but every few months, they have a shared birthday party,” Aguilar said. “It was very special to me because it really showed how much the community cares about the organization. People, out of no obligation at all, made these kids' day very special. It's something that they look forward to, and the only reason it happens is because people in the community organize. I wanted to do the same.”
HOPe was founded in 2004 by Guadalupe Colque after her daughter, Selena, was diagnosed with leukemia. She decided to organize a support network for parents and families in similar situations. HOPe maintains temporary housing for families who travel from rural areas to downtown Salta for oncological treatment. The families HOPe supports can have very limited financial resources, often just enough for transportation to the city. HOPe does not provide medical treatment but does offer counseling, educational assistance, clothing, and transportation. “I wanted to do a charity concert, but the more I thought about it, the logistics are crazy,” Aguilar said. However, when he brought the idea to HOPe, they were supportive.
Colque, HOPe’s president, connected Aguilar with a renowned musician and local leader in community development: Inga Iordanishvili, the principal violinist of the Salta Symphony Orchestra. Iordanishvili is also the founder of Fundación Camerata Stradivari, an academic orchestra for continuing education that aims to change lives by offering music education, professional development, and opportunities to build a career in music performance. She agreed to help him find other musicians and put on the charity concert for HOPe.
On August 8, at the Provincial Theater of Salta, clarinetist Jose Aguilar, violinist Inga Iordanishvili, and two other leading Argentinian musicians—lyric soprano Romina Andrea and pianist Milagros Bosso Galli—performed the benefit concert, bringing together chamber music and solidarity in a special performance intended to support children, teenagers, and young adults with cancer and their families.
“I've been organizing everything, doing all the logistical stuff, and promoting the concert. It has felt like a full-time job for the last week,” Aguilar said. “I’m going to different local TV channels, to the radio, and doing all this to raise a significant amount of funds for an organization that really lives off donations and fundraising events."
In a show of regional political support for the event, Salta’s Secretary of Culture and a member of Argentina’s National Congress planned to attend the event. Local news outlets including Informate Salta, Aries Online, and El 10 TV have run stories.
As the concert approached, Aguilar reflected on what he learned about development work as an Elliott Scholar in Salta. His greatest takeaway was the power of combining two areas of study he previously saw as separate to build community movements.
“Development requires a lot of creativity. When I got here, I thought maybe what's expected of me is that I should help find a grant, and that'll make my time here a success for the organization. But that's not really the case,” Aguilar said. “I'm a musician, and I know I could connect with musicians, so I decided to do that. It's important to realize what you have to offer. There's no right path for doing this. Everyone has their own thing that they can do to support development.”
