Melodies at Jenks

Written by Jungyoon Lee

Today, Giving Tree and its members went to The Jenks Center in Winchester, Massachusetts to share our gift of playing music with the senior citizens. As it was our very first time performing, we were unsure of how our performance would go. With a variety in audience members to people we were not able to personally communicate with due to a language barrier, we were quite worried and nervous. As we soon came to realize how much joy our music gave to everyone, our nerves soon began to go away, with smiles beginning to appear on everyone’s faces.

Throughout the event, after every piece one member played, the audiences would clap encouragingly with a smile on their faces, and it allowed us to continue throughout the program with more and more joy. Our audience highly enjoyed our performance and it was great knowing that they appreciated the gift of music that we wanted to spread to them.

One member of the audience even pointed out the window at a Swan swimming in a lake across from the senior center in reference to our cellist’s piece, The Swan, by Saint-Saens, making everyone in the room laugh. Even to the members of the audience that did not speak English, our music was now seen as the language of the universe; the peace that came with our music was effectively communicated to each audience member, which we hoped would do.

It was such an honor knowing that we were able to soothe many hearts today through our music, and we are overjoyed to hear that many people were positively influenced by our performance. Music is a powerful tool for healing, and we are so blessed to be be able to share this gift. Thank you so much! :)