A&E

Harry Connick Jr. writes song for Newtown victim

by Walter Pierce

Connick this week released the song "Love Wins," dedicated to Ana Grace Marquez-Greene, and said proceeds will go to the Ana Grace Fund set up to help the girl's family.

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) - Harry Connick Jr. has written a song in honor of a 6-year-old girl killed in the Newtown school shooting.

Connick this week released the song "Love Wins," dedicated to Ana Grace Marquez-Greene, and said proceeds will go to the Ana Grace Fund set up to help the girl's family.

Connick played with the girl's jazz saxophonist father, Jimmy Greene, and sang at the funeral for Ana, one of 20 first-graders and six adults killed in December at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He said he was inspired by a speaker at the service who emphasized that love trumps even the greatest tragedy.

Greene is scheduled to receive the Governor's Arts Award at a ceremony Saturday at the International Festival for Arts and Ideas in New Haven and will lead a performance by the Jimmy Greene Quintet. He will participate in a panel discussion at Yale University Art Gallery that is open to the public.

Greene, an assistant professor at Western Connecticut State University and an internationally acclaimed saxophonist, composer and bandleader, said he was honored to receive the award.

"Reviewing the list of past recipients is quite humbling, indeed," he said in a statement released by the university. "I am blessed to have learned at the feet of such giants of the arts in Connecticut and to have lived most of my life here. There is a vibrant, inspirational community of musicians and artists here in Connecticut, and I am proud to be a small part of it."

Greene has released a series of critically acclaimed albums and received numerous honors. In April, he brought together leading jazz artists for a concert dedicated to the Newtown victims.