Luciano Pavarotti Charity Work, Events and Causes

Italian tenor Pavarotti annually hosted the “Pavarotti and Friends” charity concerts in his home town of Modena in Italy, joining with singers from all parts of the music industry, including Eric Clapton, Elton John, Sting, Bono, Sheryl Crow and Jon Bon Jovi, to raise money for several UN causes.

Pavarotti held concerts were held for War Child, and victims of war and civil unrest in Bosnia, Guatemala, Kosovo, and Iraq. After the war in Bosnia, he financed and established the Pavarotti Music Center in the southern city of Mostar to offer Bosnia’s artists the opportunity to develop their skills. For these contributions, the city of Sarajevo named him an honorary citizen in 2006.

He also performed at benefit concerts to raise money for victims of tragedies such as the Spitak earthquake that killed 25,000 people in northern Armenia in December 1988.

In 1998, he was appointed the United Nation’s Messenger of Peace.

In 1999, Pavarotti performed a charity concert in Beirut, to mark Lebanon’s reemergence on the world stage after a brutal 15 year civil war. It was attended by 20,000 people – the largest concert held in Beirut since the end of the war.

In 2001, Pavarotti received the Nansen Medal from the UNHCR for his efforts raising money on behalf of refugees worldwide. Through benefit concerts and volunteer work, he has raised more than any other performer.

He received the Red Cross “Award for Services to Humanity” and the 1998 MusiCares Person Of The Year.

He died in 2007.