As May ends, summer is arriving! We hope everyone enjoys the end of the school year and looks forward to the start of break!

Since summer break is nearing, MusicAid will be increasing our events and concerts. We hope you guys can continue to support us by volunteering and, of course, be compensated with SSL hours! Stay tuned for updates on new opportunities to earn SSL hours.

May Concerts

Our three regular concerts throughout May were characterized by a large number of talented piano performances. Among these piano performers were the students of the wonderful piano teacher 

Hanni Zhang, including her son, Eason Han, who performed at our Raphael House concert on May 24th. Zhang's students are only in elementary school and therefore cannot earn SSL hours, yet they still bring much talent and energy to our concerts, being there simply for the sake of performing. We are incredibly appreciative of her support of our concerts.

Additionally, we had two amazing performances from two brothers, Noah and Alexander Cochrane. Alexander delivered a great performance of Gavotte by Lully on the violin. On the other hand, Noah showcased his skills on the harmonica with a performance of You Are My Sunshine, and What A Wonderful World. We adore the energy and singularity of the harmonica, a unique instrument that has yet to appear at our concerts until now. It is also known as the French harp or mouth organ and is a free reed wind instrument used in a wide array of genres, including blues, jazz, folk, country, rock, and classical. We are glad to see this distinctive instrument appear at our concerts!

Another notable performance in May was a young singer who performed at our Bartholomew House concert on May 17th. 9th grader Nyah Magsino performed her cover of two songs, She Used To Be Mine by Sara Bareilles, as well as the iconic Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend as performed by Marilyn Monroe in the classic movie, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. We applaud Nyah for her amazing performance and are hopeful for even more of the vocal instrument from our performers

We have sent out SSL forms. Please turn these in as soon as possible to ensure you earn the hours you deserve! If you did not receive your forms, don't hesitate to get in touch with us!

We now have 387 subscribers on our YouTube channel! Thank you guys so much for the boost in subscriptions. We hope this progress can continue in the future as well!

If you would like to view more amazing performances from our wonderful volunteers, head over to our YouTube Channel. Our channel is linked here: 

https://www.youtube.com/@MusicAid-us

Check out the full May newsletter: https://secure.smore.com/n/w4zbty

As April ends, many of our volunteers are busy preparing for exams. We wish you good luck in May! 

April Concerts 

We hosted our three regular concerts this month. As always, we had many talented piano and violin performers. While the prevalence of these two instruments was high, there was nevertheless a wide range of performances, from classical music to hit songs.

One of our performers, Logan Liu, performed an instrumental rendition of the iconic Beatles' hit song, "Blackbird," on the guitar. While most performances at our concerts are beautiful in their composition, as composers like Bach or Beethoven meticulously crafted pieces that appealed purely through sound, it is interesting to listen to a piece like "Blackbird" performed without lyrics, where you can still hear the opening lines reverberating through your head as the song begins. While modern songs lack the detail and precision of classical works, they can still resonate with people through lyrics.

Another notable performer was a singer who graced us with her voice at Raphael House. 6th Grader Nimmy Rajesh sang Dandelions by Ruth B. While our concerts are dominated by instrumental performances, we are very happy to have performers use their voice as an instrument. We hope in the future we can see more singers to our concerts!

Performance at NIH

This month, many of our talented board members performed at the NIH. While we had hoped to recruit more volunteers, the concert was rescheduled on short notice, so we didn’t have enough time to gather a larger group.

We’re really grateful to the NIH coordinators, who reached out to us as soon as they were back in the office to help us restart the concert. Despite the short notice, our board members and a few volunteers delivered amazing performances of contemporary, classical, and traditional pieces.

A special highlight was when board members Aaron, Alex, and Ethan teamed up with Andy Yan to perform Quartet in E-flat Major by Walter Rabl. We also had a wonderful cello and piano duet of The Swan by Camille Saint-Saëns, performed by Logan Liu (cello) and Sophia Liu (piano).

All the performers were incredible, and we’re so thankful for the opportunity to work with the NIH. We look forward to continuing to perform there, and next time, we’ll make sure to include even more of you!

We now have 352 subscribers on our YouTube channel! Thank you guys so much for the boost in subscriptions. We hope this progress can continue in the future as well!

If you would like to view more amazing performances from our wonderful volunteers, head over to our YouTube Channel. Our channel is linked here: 

https://www.youtube.com/@MusicAid-us

Check out the full Apirl newsletter: https://secure.smore.com/n/rac49

February is coming to a close and spring is almost upon us. We hope you guys stayed warm this winter before spring arrives.

Lunar New Year Performance for Chinese Seniors 

On 2/7, we hosted a concert at a Chinese senior home in honor of the Lunar New Year. Many of our talented board members as well as some volunteers performed traditional Chinese pieces to celebrate the holiday! Each performer sounded fantastic, with some performing with background tracks to further enhance the quality of the performance. 

Additionally, even featured was an erhu performer. An erhu, a traditional Chinese instrument, is similar to a violin, yet it is two stringed. Alice, the performer, got sick before the occasion, but still went to the concert and did amazing! We thank her for her dedication. 

We are happy to perform for these Chinese seniors and to expand our cultural horizons. We hope we can collaborate with them even more in the future! Happy Late Lunar New Year to all who celebrate!

All State Performance 2/23

On February 23rd, many of our board members and volunteers performed for MMEA's All-State Junior Orchestra and band. Our very own Vivian who is the Artistic Manager served as the concert master for the junior orchestra despite only being in 7th grade. Congrats to all performers on a spectacular performance. We are very proud of all of you who went and we hope they had a lot of fun on their trip!

Despite many of our volunteers being unavailable to perform for our concert on the same weekend, we were nonetheless impressed by many talented performers during our concert on February 22nd at Raphael House.

Many of our high school board members and volunteers will attend All-State Senior Orchestra and band next week. Good luck to all of them.

Unforgettable Moments

At our concert on 2/2, Travis, a 12th grader, performed Je Te Laisserai Des Mots by Patrick Watson. After posting his performance on YouTube Shorts, many compliments were left in the comments, and the short received nearly 50 likes!

On 2/22 we hosted one of our regular concerts at Raphael House. Many of the performers did amazingly but one pair stood out with four pieces. A duet of brother on cello and sister on piano stunned the seniors with their impressive skill and coordination.

Together, the duo performed Ave Maria, Salut d'Amour, Bach's Arioso, and Pachelbel's Canon in D. Despite their younger age, they cruised through each piece with the confidence of seasoned performers. We thank them for their wonderful performance! 4 pieces is no easy feat!

Thank you to all our wonderful performers this month! There have certainly been many highlights throughout all of the concerts!

If you would like to view our amazing performances, head over to our YouTube Channel. Our channel is linked here: 

https://www.youtube.com/@MusicAid-us

Check out the full February newsletter: https://secure.smore.com/n/d65y7