Saturday, February 16, 2013

Ivy Hall & Sunrise of Johns Creek


It was a fun, busy day for Notes of Joy once again!
    
Today, we visited 2 more nursing homes - Ivy Hall and Sunrise of Johns Creek. As usual, we played some of our favorites, like Georgia on My Mind, Theme from New York, New York, and America the Beautiful, not to mention classical music like Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and Allegro in D for Strings!
    
Another popular selection that we recently added was "An Armed Forces Tribute," dedicated in honor of all those who have served this country.
    
Sadly, we didn't take any pictures at Ivy Hall, but here are some from Sunrise!





As much as I love playing for our senior citizens, personally, my favorite part of visiting nursing homes is conversing with the elderly.Throughout all my Notes of Joy experiences, I have been given so much advice from these wise individuals, advice that brings tears to my eyes.
      
For example, a  great man from Ivy Hall told me today, while discussing his motivation for fighting in WWII, that "all people are people" and how he wishes that all people would realize that. These senior citizens have done so much on our behalf for this community, and I feel that it's the least that we can do to give back.
    
It's amazing how much a mere conversation means to them; it shows them that young people care. Their appreciation and support are absolutely unfathomable.
       
Here are some more pictures from after our performance:












If you've never visited a nursing home, I encourage you to go out and share your experiences with our senior citizens and to listen to their fascinating life stories. It would mean so much to them.

Have a great week!

-Priscilla Kim


"Georgia on My Mind"

Here's a clip of us playing "Georgia on My Mind" yesterday at the Benton House!


Friday, February 15, 2013

Benton House & Cohen Home!!



It's a Friday, and we have no school, and we don't have school Monday either because of President's Day! Because of this, Notes of Joy decided to take advantage of the four-day weekend to visit our friends at our favorite  local nursing homes.In total, we will have played at four nursing homes this weekend-- 2 today and 2 tomorrow.

Today, we had an AMAZING time playing for our friends at the Benton House and the Cohen Home.

Here are some pictures from the Benton House!







And a link to a clip of us playing "Brandenburg Concerto No. 3" by J.S. Bach!



Following our performance at the Benton House, we drove over to a neighboring nursing home, the Cohen Home!

Here are some pictures:













As always, after our performance at each nursing home, we were able to talk with the residents.
We are so grateful to being given the opportunity to perform and talk with these lovely senior citizens.
By conversing with them, we have learned so much about them and their services to this community as well as others. They have also given us great advice about the future.

We absolutely loved spending the day off to hang out with them, and their appreciation and support are so great and wonderful. We wish we could spend hours every day talking to them; we know we would appreciate it as much as they would.

Many of the people we talked to today asked if they were taking time away from us doing homework, but we told them that we would do it tomorrow! What else do you expect from a bunch of high school kids?

But honestly, this is so much better than homework or anything else.
It really gives us so much joy...
 
We love the Benton House and the Cohen Home with all our heart and look forward to seeing them again later this year!

Thank you all for your continued love and support. We could not do any of this without you.

Priscilla Kim  and Jenny Di

Saturday, February 2, 2013

First Performance of 2013!


Happy New Year to all of our supporters; we hope all of you had a great first month of 2013!
We are very pleased to announce that the Notes of Joy season has begun again. Today, we visited Dogwood Forest of Alpharetta to perform. The residents were so kind and sweet, and we honestly could not be more grateful for such a supportive audience.
We added several new pieces to our repertoire today, such as Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and An Armed Forces Tribute.
Today was especially special because Mrs. Koch, an AP English Language and Composition teacher at Johns Creek, and Mrs. Edwards, one of our school's counselors, came all the way to Dogwood Forest to hear us play because one of the residents at Dogwood Forest is Mrs. Edwards' father and Mrs. Koch's grandfather. We had the great pleasure of being able to perform for him, as well.

Again, we are so thankful for opportunity to spread the joy of music to those in our community and so grateful for all the support that we receive. Thank you so much to all who came out to listen and to everyone who was there in spirit! It really means a lot to us.
Have a wonderful weekend, and we'll see you all soon!  :)
(We'll be performing at the Benton House on February 15!)

Jenny and Priscilla