|
On the Sunday morning of 7/28, the young musicians of Music & Love visited APlus Adult Center. This is the first time we have visited here. Some of the young musicians came all the way from Virginia just for the performance. Staff members and seniors warmly greeted us and lots of seniors came to watch our performance. Everyone practiced over and over again just for this performance. The performance started with the beautiful sound of Mozart and two well-played Chopin nocturnes brought by Samuel, Angelina, and Lucia. After that, we had a duet, played by Eileen and Elizabeth. We also had 3 violin solo performances, brought by Chris, Elizabeth, and Eileen. The performance concluded in Bruch Violin Concerto. After the performance, the seniors gave us warm applause. They said this is a very high-level performance. Every young musician is talented. They want us to come back again. Today’s performance was also a great experience and it was wonderful to see how much happiness we brought just by our playing. We hope to see them again.（Reported by Christopher Wang)
0 Comments
The sounds of instruments never get old in Raphael House and so does the tranquil environment outside. The trees’ leaves rustling and a soft wind outside makes this the perfect place for an awesome concert. The seniors are overjoyed that it’s Music and Love day again and many came out to the beautiful lobby to hear us play. Our new buddy, Skye, played Fur Elise, a classical piano piece that will definitely spark lots of memories in our senior friends’ minds. Adding to the feeling of going all the way back to the 18th century, Selena’s Barcarolle is full of emotions, but fits in perfectly with the natural atmosphere in the room. Angelina and Lucia played the duet version of the amazing piece, Alla Turca, named Turkish March, which has a great harmony and got a lot of applause. Acting very similar to a first violinist, Irene shook everyone away with how well she controlled the dynamics and speed in her violin piece, followed by Eileen, who did equally as well on her violin piece, the Brunch Concierto. Every concert has to have a great finale, and the two of our superstars, Eileen and Irene, surprised everyone with the inspirational song, River Flows in You, which also somehow gave a feeling of sadness. Too bad Isabella’s taking a nap today. It would be really nice to see her perform something. Right? (Reported by Aric Deng)
We were going to a fundraising event today when it started raining. We found a place to park. We met at Giant supermarket and walked to a nearby plaza to raise fund for our music and live organization. At first there was no luck, people were rush walking because of the rain. But we managed to get some donations. Julianne and Jacqueline played violin in turn and attracted some people. The rest four of us tried to stop people and ask them for donations. At the end we counted the money and it totaled $94.16 which is not too bad for a raining day. Also in the middle of the fundraising we met two people with dogs. The names of the dogs are Lucky and Sailor. Sailor had her ears dyed blue and Lucky’s owner said he/she is 90 years old (in dog years). Well, I’d say it was a success! We got some donations and we got some fun! My question is “who needs an umbrella when you are having fun in the rain”? (Reported by Grace Zhou)
In Summer 2024, Ryan Song, a young Creative Director at Music and Love, Inc., and an incoming 9th grader, hosted six free video production workshops via Zoom on July 16, July 18, July 30, August 1, August 6, and August 8. During these sessions, Ryan showcased the exciting features of the free video editing software WeVideo. He explored everything from video and sound editing to the magic of visual effects and the ins and outs of importing and exporting videos, ensuring everyone felt like a pro. Ryan cherished the opportunity to share his editing workflow and helpful tips with his audience. He hopes that participants not only benefit from the workshops but also find joy in creating their own videos and building cool, lasting memories! (Reported by Ryan Song)
On a sunny July evening, the Catexpress Boat No. 3 departed for a Kitty Island round trip with 56 felines onboard, 9 crew members, and most importantly, with the captain Isabella from Raphael House, Maryland. Ever since Nathan has resurrected this lucky cat, she has been pursuing the dream of becoming a captain. She wants to sail on the high seas, with her happy passengers on her cruise ship. She has been testing and studying very hard to get her boat license, and after a few months of successful tests, she not only got her license, but found a contract for Catexpress to pilot the Boat No. 3. Today was her big day; a 150-mile round trip journey to Kitty Island. With the Music and Love concert getting ready to live stream on the ship's 8K TVs, Isabella sounded the horn and started the propellers to depart on their journey. "Good morning, my felines. This is Captain Isabella speaking.” Isabella announced. “On behalf of the Catexpress cruise line, welcome aboard the Boat No. 3!!! We thank Music and Love for sponsoring our voyage, and their young musicians will be playing to us from the Raphael House in Maryland with our fellow senior friends on site enjoying the music! We are delighted to be playing this concert live on the waterslide plaza on deck 5! Enjoy the trip, and we hope you have lots of fun!!! Meow" With this, the gigantic TVs turned on and everybody saw Allie striding confidently up to the stage to play her stunning piano piece. For the whole 7-day journey, the cats and the seniors at the house listened to Sarah's solemn La Folia, hummed to Samuel's playful piece while taking a hot tub, Chris’s Bradenburg Concierto that made several cat couples come on deck and dance, and many more of these phenomenal pieces were performed! Of course, the voyage had to come to an end, and after a fun day at Kitty Island and a musical journey home, Isabella thought about her senior friends and how nice they were to her. "Look at these cats enjoying the music my friends played! I feel so good that my dear seniors get to listen to these amazing pieces almost every weekend!" Isabella's voyage ended on a high note, and she came back to the Raphael House garden to sleep when she caught Eilleen and Irene playing that final song of Isabella's Lullaby. With the excellent background music of her favorite song and her senior coming out to give her food and a blanket, Isabella felt that she had a great week. She closed her eyes and sleeps soundly…To another Isabella adventure the next day. Thank you, Music and Love!!! (Reported by Aric Deng)
Mr. Samuel Lu is running our ComposeLab classes again!!! As our performers eagerly pile into the learning space after their phenomenal performances, Samuel brings the room to life with his great connection between the teaching curriculum and the things that we love. He made us engaged by telling a story of an imposter chasing a crewmate in the popular game, Among Us. He was able to finish an awesome song and bring lots of joy and knowledge to us. Someone please nominate Samuel for the Global Teacher’s Prize!!! He deserves it!!! (Reported by Aric Deng)
Music is all about expressing one's emotions and here at our concert at Byron House today, we can see how many of our young performers are expressing their feelings through their music. The string trio played Oblivion, a slow and solemn piece which might show their feelings on a rainy day. Of course nobody likes the moody days when you’re stuck in bed all day, and so Ryan expresses his agreement by adding in his low pitched piano piece, Nocturne, with the fact that even a little sunlight through the rain makes people feel a bit happier by the higher notes in his piece. Max and Noam acted like they just loved to be on the stage when they sang their three pop songs. They smiled like pop stars and made themselves look very chill on the stage, they should really start a band in the future!!! Lucia and Chloe felt very hopeful about the coming years by singing and playing the popular song, “Have You Ever Seen The Rain”, which must have given a lot of sunshine into the lives of everyone present here today. This is truly one of the best concerts outside of the one we did at NIH due to how much emotion we put into our music and how much we care about our elders. (Reported by Aric Deng)
|
RSS Feed