Joanna Chen

Strings strummed, basses boomed and voices vibrated around the auditorium on April 24 through 14 student musician performances. Featuring a diverse lineup of musical acts, Music for Community Club hosted its annual benefit concert. Following the club’s mission to create positive change through music, all concert profits will be donated to the American Cancer Society.

The American Cancer Society was chosen in hopes that many students would be interested in supporting a well-known organization. Their concert program featured a QR code for audience members to scan to learn more about and donate to the ACS.

“We’re aiming for around 100 attendees,” sophomore and MFC public relations officer Victoria Huang said. “With that, we hope to bring more visibility and appreciation for Lynbrook’s musical community.”

As the first Benefit Concert since before school was shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s officer team faced some challenges. With a lack of contact with officers who had organized this concert in the past, they had to start from scratch. Adviser Linnea Romander was supportive in negotiations with ASB to book facilities and plan fundraising logistics. Last year, they wanted to host the Benefit Concert in support of the Los Angeles fires, but were unsuccessful due to difficulties booking facilities.

Thus, they began planning earlier this year. Outreach began in January, when MFC began contacting art clubs at Lynbrook and music societies across FUHSD. In February and March, the officer team sorted out details with their adviser and coordinated with clubs to confirm their participation. In the weeks leading up to the concert, efforts to promote the event surged through announcements and flyers around campus. Officers worked on finalizing the program order and sorting out ticket sales in preparation for a smooth event day.

“We’re really glad to have confirmed that the venue is reserved early this year to prevent unforeseen difficulties from popping up,” Huang said. “I’m glad we can do this event because it’s a really great culmination of our members’ efforts, and we get to create music for a meaningful cause.”

The concert began with a magic act by freshman Joel Huang, who delighted the audience with card tricks. Then came musical solos, duets and small groups playing instruments including the piano, violin, French horn and saxophone. There were two saxophone duets to pieces by Mozart: “Horn Concerto No 1. in D major” by freshman Elwen Zhao and junior Eileen Zhao and “Sonata in C” by sophomores Jasmine Lien and Ishaan Mittal. More modern pieces included “Stroll” from “My Neighborhood Totoro” by junior Alexander Chen on the cello and sophomores Yutong Qiu and Sarah Yang on the piano and viola, respectively. Freshman Sandy Shao played three short improv pieces based on three notes that were provided by volunteers from the audience. Guitar Club, The Ugly Dumplings band and a member from Saratoga High School’s Tri-M were the other participating musical organizations, dispersed between MFC’s acts. 

“I think I did a lot better today than most of my rehearsals,” sophomore and performer HsuanNing Yang said. “Usually when I perform, my brain locks in, even though I feel like I’m floating somewhere. I was nervous going into the performance because I haven’t had much time to practice with my duet partner recently, but I think we matched up really well on stage.”

MFC raised more than $400 from audience members’ ticket sales and donations. They also sold drinks left over from their club food day inventory at concession stands set up in the lobby during intermission, which broke up the two-hour-long show.

The MFC officer team notes that they will expand promotional efforts earlier next year, and would like to get on the verbal announcements before fourth period on block days.

“I’m so proud of everyone who performed,” senior and MFC president Chancie Chou said. “The whole process was difficult to figure out, but I think the officer team really pulled it together and all the effort that went into this concert has really paid off.”

With the success of the first benefit concert in more than half a decade, Music for Community now hopes to continue bringing musicians and audiences together to create meaningful change.

“I definitely have faith in the rest of our officer team to continue this benefit concert, and I hope that it gets better and better every year,” Chou said.