The New York-based national non-profit organisation Sing for Hope has enlisted the help of more than 70 classical musicians for a very special album called 'An AIDS Quilt Songbook: Sing for Hope' to raise money for amFAR, the foundation for AIDS research. The album is released today, December 1, World AIDS Day. The album features contributions from Yo-yo Ma, Noah Stewart, Joyce DiDonato, Lori Laitman and Jamie Barton. 

William Parker, a baritone who was HIV-positive, conceived of the AIDS Quilt Songbook in the early 1990s. In 1992, a concert was organised at Lincoln Center which featured many leading singers of the time – including William Parker – performing a selection of newly composed songs about AIDS. Paker died the following year. This new album is a salute to that first concert and also features poetry by Siegfried Sassoon and Walt Whitman read by Sharon Stone and Ansel Elgort. 

Watch the video below to find out more about the project: