Newsletters of 2024


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Here is the link to our registration form if you are interested.https://www.musicaid.us/join-today/concert-form



DECEMBER CONCERTS

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! As December ends, so does 2024. It's been a great year with many amazing performers and events. We hope you rest well this holiday with your friends and family and stay warm this winter season!

End of Year Award Ceremony

On December 7th, we held our annual awards ceremony at Potter’s Violin to express our gratitude to our amazing volunteers, generous donors, and nursing homes for their support. Volunteers with over 25 service hours or those who earned the Presidential Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) were invited to join this special event, which featured performances from our board members and a delicious lunch. Great job to all the performers for their outstanding contributions!

The event had around 80 people, with many esteemed music teachers around the county. We had Mrs. Cammarata, who was the middle school band and orchestra teacher for many of our board members, as well as the renowned piano teacher Mrs. Park, and violin teacher Mr. Liu speak at the event. Joining us were also piano teacher Dr. Choi, MCYO flute teacher Ms. Oh, and piano teacher Dr. Hanni Zhang.

Additionally, one of our donors, Mr. Zhang from the Potomac Institute, spoke about his wonderful organization. We are very grateful for his donations and applaud the organization's mission, which is aligned with our very own goal of spreading joy and contributing to the community through music. Outside of the ceremony, the lunch was delicious and beautifully arranged. See the photos attached for more.

A Big Thank You to Our Volunteers

Let's give a round of applause to all our student musicians for their incredible efforts this year!

Sriram Bhamidipati, Chelsea Cai, Serena Cong, Jason Hua, Melodie Li, Elliott Puatrakul, Du Qiao, Ryan Qiao, Leeann Sun, Isabella Teshome, Joel Teshome, Daelan Wambogo, Alvin Xu, Amy Xu, Andy Yan, Marilyn Zhang, Terry Zhang, Tyson Zhang

If you didn’t reach the milestones this year, don’t worry—there will be plenty of chances in 2025 to earn awards. 

MusicAid would once again like to thank all of our volunteers for their dedication as well as our invaluable teachers and donors. None of this would be possible without you guys. Last but not least, thank you to all of the parents. Thank you for your endless support and care!

You can also watch the concluded ceremony: MusicAid Awards Ceremony 


Holiday Season 

As Christmas came around, our concerts featured many festive performances as well as holiday attire. Many kids wore cute Santa hats. We're glad to see the holiday spirit in our performers!

Many of the seniors sang along to well-known Christmas songs like a jazzy rendition of Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer. 

Even the nursing homes were decorated with festive lights and put up their intricately decorated Christmas trees.

We hope everyone enjoys this holiday season. 


Boston Concert

We’re excited to announce that MusicAid has opened a new chapter in Boston, MA! We’re looking for new board members and volunteers in the Boston area, so if you know anyone who might be interested, please share this information!

After opening our new chapter in Boston, MA, we hosted our first concert on December 28th at Waterstone of Lexington! 

We had a decent amount of volunteers with many amazing violin and piano performances, but also woodwind performers. Coincidentally, two of our Maryland chapter volunteers, Yuna and Heena, were able to make our first concert in Boston. We are very grateful that they were able to make time for us while out of state and attend this huge moment. It was a wonderful coincidence!

For more details about our Boston chapter, visit: MusicAid Boston Chapter.

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

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

Happy Holidays! See you in 2025!

NOVEMBER CONCERTS

Happy Thanksgiving! November is coming to a close after many great concerts. We hope you rest well this holiday with your friends and family and we would like to give thanks to all our wonderful volunteers this Thanksgiving!

End of Year Award Ceremony

On December 7th, we’ll be hosting our annual awards ceremony at Potter's violin to thank our volunteers, donors and nursing homes for their support. Volunteers with over 25 hours or who have earned the Presidential Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) are invited to join us for this special event, which includes performances and lunch. If you didn’t reach these milestones this year, don’t worry—there will be plenty of chances in 2025 to earn awards.

You can also watch the ceremony live at 9:30 AM on December 7th here: YouTube Live Stream.

MusicAid's Busy Month 

Our board members have been very busy this month! We hosted four regular concerts in senior homes across Maryland and Virginia.

On Nov 10th, our founders Ethan and Alex were invited to Washington, D.C., to perform for ambassadors from around the world.

Later, on November 24th, MusicAid helped organize the event "Collection of Excellent Youth Programs of Greater Washington" at Bender JCC, along with other organizations. Our talented Musicians Ethan, Alex, Aaron, and Andy also performed at the event.

Parent's Performance

Traditional Chinese music also appeared in our monthly concerts, with an erhu performer. Erhu is a traditional Chinese instrument, similar to a violin, but it is two-stringed. 

Our concerts also feature an increasing amount of parent involvement, with a father-son duo of Carl on the violin and his father on the guitar, as well as a mother-son clarinet duet with Jake and his mother. We're glad to see our parents' talents! To view the performances of these talented performers, head over to our YouTube

Boston Chapter

We’re excited to announce that MusicAid has opened a new chapter in Boston, MA! Our first concert in Boston will be on December 28th at Waterstone of Lexington. We’re looking for new board members and volunteers in the Boston area, so if you know anyone who might be interested, please share this information!

For more details about our Boston chapter, visit: MusicAid Boston Chapter.

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

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

Happy Holiday!

OctobeR CONCERTS

Happy Halloween! October is nearly gone already. We hope everyone has fun dressing up and trick-or-treating this spooky season. 

October was a busy month with four concerts and one fundraising event. At Cabin John Village, we made over $200 from donations and selling spirited spooky witch lanterns for halloween! We would like to thank all generous donors. With our remaining lanterns, we decided to donate them to nearby elementary schools, including Bells Mill ES and Cold Spring ES. We hope the children have a lot of fun with them!  

As for our concerts, a variety of instruments were present, yet piano performers were in abundance, many of which are very young and talented. As MusicAid continues throughout the years, we are excited to see their talent grow. 

We’re excited to announce that MusicAid has officially opened a new chapter in Boston, MA! Our organization is growing, and we’re looking for talented new board members in the Boston area. If you know anyone who might be interested, please help us spread the word. Check out more details here:https://www.musicaid.us/about-us/boston-chapter 

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

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

Happy Halloween!

 September CONCERTS

Summer ends and school starts once again, with September flying by. We hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their school year so far. Just a reminder but application for the Presidential Volunteer Service Award is closed. If you missed the deadline, good luck next year!

This month went very smoothly and produced 3 concerts, with a host of talented piano and string performers, along with a few woodwinds. We welcomed many new faces and would like to thank all the musicians who joined our concert for the first time. The activity manager at the senior homes often shares how much the seniors enjoy your performances and how eagerly they look forward to the next one. One of the highlights was Jack performing two Mozart clarinet duets with his mom, Jennifer. Thank you for the wonderful mother-son collaboration!

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

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

We have also uploaded a video of our 2023-2024 Concert Highlights so far. Watch down below or on our channel!

We hope you enjoy your school year! 

 August CONCERTS

Summer passed in a blink and school is starting once again. We hope everyone enjoyed their break. During the final month of summer, we accomplished many important achievements. 

First and foremost, we want to mention that we have two new board members here at MusicAid. Vivian Tang, our new Arts Manager, as well as Gloria Ouyang, who will be our SSL Manager. We are glad to have them on our team!

Our very first fundraiser raised over $300! We had many talented musicians perform at Giant and many passersby took interest in our event. Thank you to all performers and donors for this event and we hope to organize another one in the future.

There were many concerts this month, including one at Children's National Hospital. The concert was a joint concert with our partner, Peabody Harmony Project which is based in Howard County. A neurosurgeon enjoyed our new board member, Vivian's, performance and had a nice conversation with her. She spoke about how she had played strings while in school and the importance of practice. We thank her for her kind and inspiring words. 

We would like to highlight one of our performers this month, Lily Xu, whose video on our YouTube channel has surpassed over 2,000 views. Not only is this an impressive achievement, but Lily came all the way from Frederick to perform. She does not gain any SSL hours for her performance. We thank her for contributing her talent to us. Watch Lily's performance below. 

Our YouTube channel now has 125 subscribers! Thank you to all who have subscribed. Our channel is linked here: https://www.youtube.com/@MusicAid-us  

Additionally, we are finally active on our Instagram. Follow us at @musicaid.us or click here: https://www.instagram.com/musicaid.us/

SSL forms are also out! Please email us with any questions. 

The President's Volunteer Service Award is open for applications tomorrow. You can submit an application 9/01/2024-9/20/2024. MusicAid will cover all costs, meaning applying is free! For more details about requirements and submission, please visit HERE.

As summer is ending, we wanted to thank all of our volunteers! Since conception, we have hosted 38 concerts, each with many talented performers! We hope to continue growing our accomplishments through this school year! Thank you everyone!

 JULY CONCERTS

Summer is more than halfway over and the start of school arrives soon. We hope everyone has been enjoying their summer so far! 

In July, we had the pleasure of hosting three concerts, which featured a variety of performances. Among these were traditional Chinese dance performances and various vocal performances. Max impressed us all by singing and playing guitar or piano, covering songs from the Backstreet Boys, Ed Sheeran, and Benson Boone. Additionally, we were wowed by a stunning saxophone performance by Mason showcasing his exceptional skill.

We are thrilled to welcome more and more wonderful musicians to our community. Mila, the principal cellist at MCYO's Chamber Strings group , and Keiko, the concertmaster of the Young Artists ensemble of MCYO, both volunteered for our concerts. We also enjoyed the music of many other skilled string performers. July has presented us with much skill and talent. Thank you to all our talented performers this month!

Our YouTube channel is linked here: https://www.youtube.com/@MusicAid-us  

Additionally, we would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Gary Yeisley, who chose to list us as an organization for donations in his memory. We are grateful for his generous contributions. May he rest in peace. 

To check out our group photos for each concert, the link is here: https://www.musicaid.us/2024-events

And also don't forget to apply for the President's Volunteer Service Award after summer. For more information, visit HERE

Enjoy your summer everyone!

 JUNE CONCERTS

Summer has come and 2024 is halfway over. We hope everyone is enjoying their summer break. June passed in a flash with 3 concerts. Of course, we had many talented performers, and this month featured many bands. Among these include ACE, Snakes on Fire, The Fellas, and The Skibidi Rizzlers. 

As usual, piano and string performances were abundant. During one of our concerts, coincidentally, 3 of our piano performers, Evan, Matthew and Yuxian, all ended up performing the same piece. While the piece, Arabesque No. 1 in E Major, by Debussy, is a fairly common piece, it still is shocking that this coincidence occurred. 

Along with this, we are proud to announce that 2 violinist with our free accompaniment service won awards in 2024 MSMTA string solo competition in June. Accompanied by our founders Ethan and Alex, performers won 1st and honorable mention. Congratulations! We would like to remind everyone that MusicAid still provides complimentary piano accompaniment for other instruments.

We also now have a youtube short that has garnered over 2.5k views. View it down below, can you tell who is rushing? Our YouTube channel is linked here: https://www.youtube.com/@MusicAid-us  

To check out our group photos for each concert, the link is here: https://www.musicaid.us/2024-events

And also don't forget to apply for the President's Volunteer Service Award after summer. For more information, visit HERE

Enjoy your summer everyone!

May CONCERTS

As May ends, summer arrives and students can all breathe a sigh of relief. In the final month of spring, we hosted 3 concerts. We had many spectacular piano performances as usual, including a wonderful performance of Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu by Joanna, which was viewed almost 680 times on YouTube. Asha brought a heavenly harp performance, covering "Can't Help Falling in Love" while 7th grader Stepan gave us a jazz guitar performance that was both energetic and calming. 

Our talented musician Vivian Tang, practiced for about twenty minutes with Elliott and his mom Pia for the piece Canon. The string trio had a quick practice session backstage at Bartholomew House (as shown in Picture 2) and delivered a wonderful performance despite the short notice.

At our Virginia concert on May 25, the board members of MusicAid had their first formal reunion. The members took a picture at Vinson Hall, dressed in formal attire. We hope you thought that our group photo looked cool!

Our YouTube channel is linked here: https://www.youtube.com/@MusicAid-us  

To check out our group photos for each concert, the link is here: https://www.musicaid.us/2024-events

We would like to share with everyone that MusicAid also offers complimentary piano accompaniment for performances. Our pianist, Ethan Pei, recently accompanied Matthew during his viola recital at the Mansion at Strathmore and Ella during her violin performance at the concert in Virginia. You can view the video on our YouTube channel. Don't hesitate to contact us if you need piano accompaniment.

Please remember that SSL forms are due May 31, so please submit your forms before the due date! Feel free to email us with any questions or concerns.

Have a great summer everyone!

April CONCERTS

April showers bring May flowers. As we arrive at the final month of spring, summer is imminent. April seems to have passed in a blur, with 2 concerts this month. At the first concert, we had an impressive performance of Chopin-Liszt on the piano. Our second concert featured a Horse-Headed fiddle performance. Both concerts featured a variety of talented performers, ranging from singers to trumpeters to clarinetists. 

As April departs, we cannot wait to see what May will bring us. Additionally, we are pleased to announce that MusicAid is now certified to present the President's Volunteer Service Award. For the award year 2023-2024, we invite you to apply and learn more about the process here:

https://www.musicaid.us/join-today/presidents-volunteer-service-award

MARCH CONCERTS

The cold season is over and spring has arrived! We hope everyone is enjoying their spring break thus far. March was a great month with 3 concerts. We had many talented and interesting performances. There was a fantastic gymnastics performance, performed by Shirley Wang, who placed 7th in the PanAmerica Competition. We also had an impressive trombone solo of the classic Edelweiss, which many of the seniors began singing along to. 

As we say goodbye to March, we are ready for whatever comes in April. 

Additionally, we are pleased to announce that MusicAid is now certified to present the President's Volunteer Service Award. For the award year 2023-2024, we invite you to apply and learn more about the process here:

https://www.musicaid.us/join-today/presidents-volunteer-service-award

FEBRUARY CONCERTS

February flew by with two concerts this month. We made every concert count! Our concert on February 3rd starred many talented young musicians, including an impressive solo singer and an adorable dog named Paddy. On Feb 17th, we coincidentally had 3 musicians with parts for Violin 1 and 2 from MCYO. Combining the parts and letting them perform as a trio piece gave a nice touch to the concert. We thank everyone for coming. 

While February was short and sweet, we are ready and excited for March and whatever it presents us with! Our new Virginia location Arleigh Burke Pavilion will have its very first concert on 3/2/2024, let's look forward to it. Don't hesitate if you want to join us!

 

    January cONCERTS


Happy 2024! We kicked off the new year in the snow for our singular concert this month. January has been met with much snowfall, to the delight of many students, and many schools were closed for a couple of days. Luckily, this did not conflict with our concert this month and we were able to host a successful concert. Though we only had one concert, due to the other one being canceled because of the covid exposure in the senior house, we still made it count. 

This concert featured many talented performers, from string duets to guitar performances, we even had a trio perform! We hope February brings more wonderful performers and more snow!