Humanity Rising: Notre-Dame Reborn

This picture shows Notre-Dame Cathedral before and after the fire.

Humanity Rising: Notre-Dame Reborn Virtual Gala

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Glenn Close

Seven-time Academy Award-nominated actress Glenn Close is an acclaimed performer whose work has graced stage, screen, and television. Read more

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Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris. He began to study the cello with his father at age four, and three years later moved with his family to New York City.
Read more

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Ken Burns

Ken Burns has been making documentary films for over forty years. Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Ken has gone one to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made...
Read more

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Scott Simon

Scott Simon is one of America’s most admired writers and broadcasters. He has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador to Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. Read more

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Bill Kurtis

Emmy award-winning journalist Bill Kurtis will be the Master of Ceremonies. Bill Kurtis is an acclaimed television documentary producer and host, and former CBS news anchor. Read more

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Olivier Latry

Olivier Latry is Notre-Dame Cathedral's organist. Established as the leading worldwide ambassador for his instrument, French organist. Olivier Latry has performed in the world’s most prestigious venues... Read more

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William Harvey
& Argentina Duran

Violinist and concertmaster of the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico William Harvey, joined by pianist Argentina Duran.

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Rodrick Dixon,
Alfreda Burke, Lisa Kristina

Opera and Broadway performers, Tenor Rodrick Dixon and Soprano Alfreda Burke accompanied by pianist Lisa Kristina

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Stephen Murray

Columbia University Professor and expert in French Gothic architecture Stephen Murray, leading a virtual tour of Notre-Dame Cathedral as she stood before the fire. Read more

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Guillaume Lacroix

Guillaume Lacroix became Consul General of France in Chicago on August 29th, 2017. Read more

This is a picture of Michel Picaud, President of Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris

Michel Picaud

Michel Picaud is President of Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds to accelerate the restoration of the iconic Paris cathedral, a position he has held since its incorporation in October 2016. Read more

Host Committee

Accenture
Vanessa & Bertrand Badré
Suki & Miguel de Bragança
Ramon de Oliveira
Barbara & Amos Hostetter
Wesley R. Johnson Jr.
Carla Knorowski
Judy & Peter Kovler
Corinne Mentzelopoulos Château Margaux
Brigitte & Gérard Moufflet
William & Penelope Obenshain
Stephanie Pace Marshall
Eric Schmidt

Join us for an unforgettable evening to support the rebuilding and restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral.

The incredible program includes exclusive appearances by:


Friends in Canada can make tax-deductible donations through the Notre-Dame de Paris Canada fund:
Donate online here

To make a donation offline:
Make your check payable to Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris and mail to:

PO Box 823926
Philadelphia, PA 19182-3926

Please include Humanity Rising on the memo line

Glenn Close

Seven-time Academy Award-nominated actress Glenn Close is an acclaimed performer whose work has graced stage, screen, and television. For her most recent film role in The Wife, Close won Golden Globe, SAG, Independent Spirit and Critics Choice Awards as “Best Actress,” as well as nominations from BAFTA, the Gotham Awards, and the London Film Critics, along with that seventh Oscar nomination. 

Close has completed filming on Hillbilly Elegy, directed by Ron Howard from Vanessa Taylor’s screenplay, based on J.D. Vance’s bestselling memoir and co-starring Amy Adams and Gabriel Basso.  Additionally, she has also completed filming on Four Good Days with co-star Mila Kunis, for writer/director Rodrigo Garcia.

Close made her feature film debut in George Roy Hill’s The World According to Garp, earning her awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review as well as her first Academy Award nomination. She was subsequently Oscar-nominated for The Big Chill, The Natural, Fatal Attraction and Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons (for which she was also a BAFTA Award nominee).

Close received her sixth Academy Award nomination in 2012, along with Golden Globe and SAG nominations, for Albert Nobbs. She wrote the screenplay with (Man Booker prize-winning novelist) John Banville. Close was also a producer on the film and composed the lyrics for the Golden Globe and World Soundtrack-nominated song, “Lay Your Head Down.” For Albert Nobbs, she received the Irish Film and Television Award (IFTA) as “Best Foreign Actress,” was voted “Best Actress” at the 2011 Tokyo International Film Festival, and was honored for her performance by the San Sebastian Film Festival (Donostia Award), Hollywood Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival and the Palm Springs Film Festival.

Her additional film credits include Richard Marquand’s Jagged Edge, Barbet Schroeder’s Reversal of Fortune, Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet, István Szabó’s Meeting Venus, Ron Howard’s The Paper, Stephen Herek’s 101 Dalmatians, Kevin Lima’s 102 Dalmatians, Wolfgang Petersen’s Air Force One, Robert Altman’s Cookie’s Fortune, Rose Troche’s The Safety of Objects, Merchant Ivory’s Le Divorce, Chris Terrio’s Heights, Rodrigo García’s Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her and Nine Lives, Evening, Low Down, 5 to 7, Anesthesia, The Great Gilly Hopkins, Guardians of the Galaxy,  Julian Fellow’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Crooked House, What Happened to Monday and The Girl With All the Gifts.

In 2012, Close headlined the fifth and final season of the critically-acclaimed original legal thriller, Damages. For her riveting portrayal of high-stakes litigator ‘Patty Hewes’, Close won two consecutive Emmys as “Best Actress in a Drama Series” and two subsequent Emmy nominations, along with a Golden Globe Award and three SAG Award nominations. 

Close’s twelve Golden Globe nominations include a Best Actress win for Andrei Konchalovsky’s adaptation of The Lion in Winter (which also earned her a SAG Award). Among the television projects that have brought her twelve Emmy nominations, is an Emmy Award for her performance as Margarethe Cammermeyer in Serving in Silence: the Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (for which she also received a Peabody Award as executive producer).

Other television credits include The Shield, The Elephant Man, Something About Amelia, Stones for Ibarra, The Ballad of Lucy Whipple and In the Gloaming, for which she won a CableACE Award. She executive produced and starred in Richard Pearce’s musical remake of South Pacific for ABC TV. She also executive produced the Sarah, Plain and Tall trilogy for the Hallmark Hall of Fame, starring in all three opposite Christopher Walken.

Close made her Public Theater debut to rave reviews in the fall of 2018 in the New York premiere of Jane Anderson’s Mother of the Maid, starring as the mother of Joan of Arc. Directed by Matthew Penn, the production ran as a limited engagement at the Public’s Anspacher Theater from September 25 through December 23, 2018.

Prior to that, Close last appeared on the stage in 2017, reprising her Tony Award-winning role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Sunset Boulevard, in an all new production that premiered at the London Coliseum in the Spring of 2016.  For that performance she won a London Evening Standard Award and was nominated for an Olivier Award. 

Close made her theatre, and Broadway, debut in Harold Prince’s revival of Love for Love. Her theater credits include The Crucifer of Blood, The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs (Obie Award), Barnum (Tony nomination) and Tony Awards for her performances in The Real Thing and Death and the Maiden, both directed by Mike Nichols. In London, she reteamed with the director of the original Sunset Boulevard stage production, Trevor Nunn, in his Royal National Theatre revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. She returned to Broadway for the 2014 revival production of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance. 

In 2010, Glenn Close co-founded Bring Change to Mind, a charity dedicated to confronting, head-on, the stigma associated with mental illness.  The organization works to normalize mental health conversations and build the awareness, understanding and empathy necessary to inspire action, structural change, and the creation of new norms which will end stigma and discrimination. The idea for the organization came about following Close’s first-hand observation of battles with mental illness within her family. For more information, please visit www.Bringchange2mind.org.

Close actively supports Puppies Behind Bars and their program Dog Tags: Service Dogs for Those Who’ve Served Us. She is a trustee emeritus of The Sundance Institute, having served as a board member for 16 years.

Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris. He began to study the cello with his father at age four, and three years later moved with his family to New York City. There, he continued his studies at the Juilliard School. After his conservatory training, he sought out a liberal arts education and graduated from Harvard with a degree in anthropology. Yo-Yo’s career is testament to his faith in culture’s power to generate the trust and understanding essential to a strong society. This belief inspired Yo-Yo to establish the global cultural collective Silkroad, and, more recently, to set out on the Bach Project — a six-continent tour of J. S. Bach’s suites for solo cello and an invitation to a larger conversation about culture, society, and the themes that connect us all.

Ken Burns

Ken Burns has been making documentary films for over forty years. Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Ken has gone one to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War; Baseball; Jazz; The War; The National Parks; America’s Best Idea; The Roosevelts; An Intimate History; Jackie Robinson; The Vietnam War; and Country Music. Future film projects include Ernest Hemingway, Muhammad Ali, The Holocaust and the United States, Benjamin Frank, Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society, The American Buffalo, Leonardo da Vinci, The American Revolution, and The History of Reconstruction, among others. Ken’s films have been honors with dozens of major awards, including sixteen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards and two Oscar nominations; and in September of 2008, at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, Ken was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Scott Simon

Scott Simon is one of America’s most admired writers and broadcasters. He has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador to Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. His books have chronicled character and characters, in war and peace, sports and art, tragedy and comedy. Simon’s weekly show, Weekend Edition Saturday, has been called by the Washington Post, “the most literate, witty, moving, and just plain interesting news show on any dial.” He has won every major award in broadcasting, including the Peabody, the Emmy, the Columbia-DuPont, the Ohio State Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and the Sidney Hillman Award. Simon is a native of Chicago and is married to Caroline Richard Simon, a native of Rouen, France having studied in Paris at SciencesPo University. They are the proud parents of two daughters, Elise and Paulina.

Bill Kurtis

Bill Kurtis is an acclaimed television documentary producer and host, and former CBS news anchor. He runs his own multimedia production company, having traveled the world for the Peabody Award-winning PBS series The New Explorers.

Bill is currently co-host on the weekly news quiz, “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me,” on NPR radio and the host of THROUGH THE DECADES on the DECADES Channel.

Using his journalistic skills and his background as a lawyer, Bill authored The Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice. And his book Bill Kurtis: On Assignment, offers deeper insights into the news stories he has covered around the world and features his photographs.

He provided the satirical narration for the feature film comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

Olivier Latry

Established as the leading worldwide ambassador for his instrument, French organist Olivier Latry has performed in the world’s most prestigious venues, been the guest of leading orchestras under renowned conductors, recorded for major labels and premiered an impressive number of works. Named titular organist at Notre-Dame in Paris at the age of 23 and organist Emeritus at the Orchestre National de Montréal since 2012, Olivier Latry is first and foremost an accomplished, thoughtful and adventurous musician, exploring all possible fields of the organ music, with an exceptional talent as an improviser.

Olivier Latry regularly appears in venues like the Berlin Philharmonie, Philharmonie de Paris, Disney Hall, San Francisco’s Davies Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Budapest’s Palace of Arts, Royal Festival Hall, KKL Lucerne, Royal Albert Hall, Suntory Hall, Mariinsky, Moscow’s new Zaryadye Hall, Rotterdam’s de Doelen, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, and as a soloist with leading orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Münchner Philharmoniker, Philharmonia Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, RSO Wien, Hong-Kong Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Orchestre National de France, under conductors like Myung-Whun Chung, Andris Nelsons, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Stéphane Denève, Fabien Gabel, Christoph Eschenbach, Alain Altinoglu, Kent Nagano, Edo de Waart, and Jukka-Pekka Saraste.
During the 2017 – 2019 seasons, Olivier was artist in residence at the Dresdner Philharmonie.


Next season’s highlights include the Belgian, French and North American premieres of Pascal Dusapin’s Waves for organ and orchestra with the Orchestre Symphonique de la Monnaie, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal.
Other premieres also include Kaija Saariaho’s Maan Varjot for organ and orchestra with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Orchestre National de Lyon and Philharmonia Orchestra in 2014, and Michael Gandolfi’s concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2015. He also premiered Benoît Mernier’s organ concerto for the inauguration of Brussels’ BOZAR new organ in 2017. 


His strong attachment to the French organ repertoire led him to record Olivier Messiaen’s complete works for organ for Deutsche Grammophon which he also performed in recitals in Paris, London and New York. In 2005, he also recorded a César Franck album for Deutsche Grammophon. Among several other recordings, Olivier also recorded Saint-Saëns’ organ concerto with Christoph Eschenbach and the Philadelphia Orchestra for Ondine. In 2013, he released Trois Siècles d’Orgue à Notre-Dame de Paris on the Naïve label, which features music composed by past and current organists of Notre-Dame Cathedral. In 2016 he recorded for Warner Music at the Philharmonie de Paris’ Rieger organ, which he had inaugurated earlier in the year. In March 2019, he started a collaboration with La Dolce Volta label with an album called “Bach to the Future”. Recorded on Notre Dame de Paris’ organ, the project features Bach’s transcriptions and original works adapted to this extraordinary instrument.

A former student of Gaston Litaize, Olivier Latry now teaches at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, and is a recipient of numerous international distinctions and awards worldwide, including the Prix de la Fondation Cino et Simone Del Duca (Institut de France–Académie des Beaux-Arts) in 2000, and “Honoris Causa” Fellowships from the North and Midlands School of Music (UK) in 2006, and from the Royal College of Organists (UK) in 2007. He was also named International Performer of the Year by the American Guild of Organists in April 2009, and received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from McGill University in Montreal Canada in 2010.
From 2019 to 2022, he is William T. Kemper Artist-in-Residence at the University of Kansas at Lawrence.

Stephen Murray

Stephen Murray is the Lisa and Bernard Selz Professor Emeritus of Medieval Art at Columbia University.  He was educated at Keble College Oxford and the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. His teaching career spanned five decades: he held positions at Morley College, University of London, Indiana University, Bloomington (where he was the founding director of the School of Fine Arts), Harvard University, and, since 1986, Columbia University. His field of teaching included Romanesque and Gothic art, particularly involving the integrated understanding of art and architecture within a broader framework of economic and cultural history.  At Columbia he established and directed (1993-2003) the Media Center for Art History and served as Departmental Chair (1997-2000).  His publications include books on the cathedrals of Amiens, Beauvais, and Troyes as well as books on medieval preaching and the role of storytelling and plotting in the comprehension of “Gothic.”  His current book, Notre-Dame of Amiens: The Life of the Gothic Cathedral, published by Columbia University Press, will appear in December 2020.

Murray, a former Guggenheim Fellow (1987-8), holds honorary citizenship of Amiens (1998) and an honorary doctorate from the University of Picardy, Jules Verne, Amiens (2019).

Guillaume Lacroix

Guillaume Lacroix became Consul General of France in Chicago on August 29th, 2017. He oversees the relations between France and 13 U.S. Midwestern States.

He holds diplomas from the Institute of Political Studies and the Law School of Assas (pron. ah-sass) University in Paris. He speaks Swahili, a language he studied at the Institute of Oriental Languages in Paris and in the field, on the islands of Zanzibar, East Africa.

He started his diplomatic career in 1997. He was assigned to the Bureau of African Affairs at the Headquarters in France, then to the French Embassy in Tanzania. In 2005, he joined the French Embassy in Washington DC.

He was also posted in two other diplomatic institutions: at the U.S. State Department as part of an exchange program and at the European External Action Service in Brussels.

From 2013 until 2017, he served in the cabinets of French Foreign Affairs Ministers as Counselor for African Affairs.

Guillaume Lacroix was born in 1971 in Auxerre (pron. oh-sair), in Burgundy. He is married and has two children.

This is a picture of Michel Picaud, President of Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris

Michel Picaud

Michel Picaud is President of Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds to accelerate the restoration of the iconic Paris cathedral, a position he has held since its incorporation in October 2016.

Prior to that Michel served as COO for International Markets of the Demos Group, one of the main European learning and development companies, and as President and CEO of HR Access Solutions, a leading Human Resources software provider part of Fidelity Investments.

Michel was also SVP for Orange Business Services/Equant, CEO of Alcatel Réseaux d’Entreprise. He worked for the Bosch Telecom Group in France and in Germany. 

He is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique Paris, Mines ParisTech and Telecom ParisTech.

He is married and is the proud father of four sons and two daughters and grandfather of one granddaughter.