“Doing community outreach…is important to our humanity,” said Kim. “I believe in using the gifts we have to beautify our corners of the world and beyond, whenever possible.”
Strings faculty member Heidi Kim is no stranger to playing music as a way to give back to the community. When she was a young violin student, she played concerts at retirement homes and assisted living centers. Playing in front of people and having a concert to work towards were important elements of her music education. Just as important as the practice of performing is sharing the gift of music with others. “Doing community outreach…is important to our humanity,” said Kim. “I believe in using the gifts we have to beautify our corners of the world and beyond, whenever possible.”
Heidi Kim is giving her students the same opportunities she had with monthly community concerts.
On December 8, a small group of her students played at the San Francisco VA Hospital Community Living Center, dedicating the concert to the veterans for their service to the country. Her young students performed classical and Christmas music for the veterans, and were well-received by the residents and staff alike.
On December 23, a larger group of Heidi’s students performed at the San Francisco Fire Department’s Station 14. According to Heidi, planning a concert at a firehouse was “tricky” since the station could get an emergency call at any time. They were able to arrange a concert at a station in the Richmond District that doesn’t get as many calls as other stations. The strings concert was dedicated to the memory of one of the station’s firefighters who had lost his life in an automobile accident and as a general “Thank You” to the firefighters. The students performed classical music and Christmas songs for an audience made up of firefighters and families in the station garage. After the concert, the students got a tour of the fire station with the fire pole being a major highlight.
Heidi remarked that her students are enjoying the community outreach concerts. One of her fourth grade students said the concerts made him feel like he was “traveling the world.” Heidi mentioned that one of the important parts of the outreach concerts is for students to get out of the familiar spaces of performing only at CMC. She is interested to see how her students react to new spaces and feels that performing is great for not only encouraging practice, but also for getting over performance anxiety.
The next studio recital is on January 26. Both her Mission and Richmond District students will be performing at Cypress at Golden Gate retirement home.
Cello faculty Ben Snellings will be presenting a concert of string solos and duos from the Baroque, Classical, Neo-classical, and Hungarian genres. Selections will include Haydn, Bach, Prokofiev, and Kodaly.
Piano faculty Jon Jang presents “Come Sunday: The Music of Duke Ellington in Celebration of his 120th Birthday Anniversary” featuring the works of Duke Ellington. Because the name “Come Sunday” refers to a recording by Duke Ellington and Mahalia Jackson celebrating black people’s struggle to have their own church, there also will be songs performed in the concert that Mahalia Jackson sang in the context of the black church.
Piano, guitar, and theory faculty Jono Kornfeld performs with the band Hop Sauce. The group performs mainly original compositions in a funk/jazz style, with a strong emphasis on improvisation and spontaneous in-the-moment composing.
Woodwinds faculty David Steinberg presents works that feature a combination of live instrumental performances paired with electronic and sampled elements and will feature works that are inspired by jazz, R&B, gospel, musique concrete, and avant garde. The program is an exploration of the concept of “lifestyle” and puts forth the hypothesis that the popularity of lifestyle journalism and content is due to the need to fill the void that traditional and now largely-unattainable sources of meaning such as owning a home, raising a large family, or working in a field that provides both a strong sense of purpose and a living wage, have left behind. By attempting to imbue consumerist habits with the pretense of social activism or spiritual enrichment, lifestyle journalism and content foster a soothing but ultimately artificial sense of purpose.
