I am excited to share that the Third Annual Homeless Benefit Concert (see my last post) was an amazing success! It was a great concert, with our largest audience ever, and together, we raised over $2,400 to support four great nonprofit organizations working to help those in poverty and who are homeless.
This concert is a way to give back to the community. Many of us young musicians depend on the support of parents, relatives, friends, teachers and mentors, who dedicate time, money, and invest in our success. In gratitude for the opportunities offered to us, my sister, friends and I presented this concert as a gift to the community and to raise money to support local nonprofit organizations.
We were fortunate enough to have several fantastic guests, Trevor Fitzpatrick from the Oregon Symphony, and friends from the Portland Youth Philharmonic String Quartet. Carly Cooney, a mezzo-soprano studying at Juilliard Pre-College, sang a Handel Aria and O Holy Night. I knew Carly from the Metro Arts Young Artist Debut which we both performed at in Spring 2014. Esther Shim, pianist and violinist, was the accompanist for several of the pieces.