Upper school symphony students who are members of Soma, which aids the disabled through music, previewed their upcoming “Melody of Compassion” performance for the Korean American Parent Association’s annual dinner at the Oxford Hotel on Aug. 21.
“We performed for them and showed them a little bit of what our symphony is and how Harvard-Westlake offers a strong music program,” Samantha Yoon ’18, who plays the cello, said.
SOMA performed their show at the Mijoo Peace Church on Saturday. Members donated profits from ticket sales to Shalom Disability Ministries.
With the proceeds, the organization will buy and wheelchairs and provide services like physical therapy to physically disabled people in South Korea, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, Burkina Faso, North Korea, Uzbekistan and Cambodia.
For Vida, a club founded to spread awareness of refugees in Europe, sold organically produced lip balm and accepted donations at the concert. The money they raised from the lip balm sales will be donated to the housing of refugees in Greece by the Samaria House Organization.
Tony Kukavica ’17 performed a violin solo of Bach Violin Partita No. 3 in E major, VII: Gigue. Other Soma members also performed solos or in other small groups.
“Usually we play as a group of violins, cellos or clarinets,” Yoon said. “However at this fundraiser, many people played as duets, quartets and solos, so it was more individualized.”