Mangione Concert to benefit Town of Clarence Flight 3407 Fund

Niewood and Mellett, as well as the other 48 people who died on the plane and in the house it struck that cold night, will be remembered in a free community party to follow the concert in Kleinhans’ Mary Seaton Room. A centerpiece of that event will be the performance of the evocative “Love Knows No Boundaries,” cowritten by local musician Noa Bursie and writer and radio host Christina Abt.

Admission is free, and food and drinks will be exchanged for tickets priced at $1 to $3, Abt says. All funds raised will go to the Town of Clarence Flight 3407 Memorial Fund.

Festival East Concerts, Chuck Mangione and the BPO paid the production costs for the post-concert party and also donated 200 tickets to the victims’ families and neighbors of the crash site.

Abt and Bursie became songwriting collaborators as a result of their Facebook friendship.

A few days after the crash, Abt read some “particularly inspiring thoughts” Bursie had posted on her Facebook page. The two began e-mailing each other, swapping bits of poetry, and Abt finally said, “Someday we should write a song together.”

By the next day, Bursie was using lyrics the two had crafted for “Love Knows No Boundaries,” a soft guitar-driven melody with the repeated chorus, “Of this we are certain— love never dies.”

Abt put a call in to Mangione’s manager, and the idea of performing the song in conjunction with the rescheduled Mangione concert was born.

“Love Knows No Boundaries” was first performed for victims’ families, crash site neighbors, first responders and other volunteers and employees who worked at the crash site March 19 at Eastern Hills Wesleyan Church. Those who attended were given copies of the CD, and, perhaps more important, a chance to talk.