"To quote Mother Teresa, 'If you judge people, you have no time to love them,' " says Ed Stern, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's producing artistic director. "Once you categorize people by sexual orientation, you are judging them. Once you don't create a level playing field - which this city does not have - we're discriminating against people because of who they are, and that is inherently unjust."

Six members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (principal bass Owen Lee, violinists David Moore, Paul Patterson and Sylvia Mitchell, violist Paul Frankenfeld and cellist Ted Nelson) will perform. The hour-long program will travel from J.S. Bach and Dvorak to a jazz arrangement by Cincinnati native Fred Hersch.

Stern and Victoria Morgan, artistic director of Cincinnati Ballet, will speak.

The $25 admission at the door includes a wine and cheese reception following the concert. Area arts supporters will host dinner parties ($100 per person) after the event.

Those endorsing the evening include the symphony's Paavo Jarvi, Cincinnati Pops conductor Erich Kunzel, May Festival maestro James Conlon, Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart, Cincinnati Opera artistic director Nicholas Muni, Cincinnati Art Museum's Timothy Rub, the Taft Museum's Phillip Long and Spencer Crew, director of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

Adds Stern, "We're not asking for special rights - we're asking for equal rights - just everyone to be treated equally. That's what's key here."

Information: 657-2143.

Janelle Gelfand