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The Tacy Foundation empowers children and teens to share hope and joy with hospital patients, military veterans, senior citizens, and disadvantaged youth through performances, music recording projects, and music mentoring programs.
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Director’s Corner: Here I am at a concert in Chevy Chase at Sunrise Brighton Gardens. The Activity Director, Ms. Teresa Adams, has supported our youth’s initiative for all the months and years we have been finding a second home here.
Today’s concert is not a monthly live-music performance. It is part of the “Sean and Katie’s Musical Hour,” a special summer series designed by the dynamic team of Sean and Katie Wang of Bethesda, a rising high-school junior and a 7th-grader.
This is the third consecutive summer they have offered their music and appreciation for music. In each weekly concert, they feature one of their favorite composers and introduce the composer’s life and/or the background of the musical works they will perform. Can you imagine? They have prepared an amazing repertoire without much repetition for their 18 concerts over three years of presentations.
This brother-sister team is presenting an informative and interactive lecture/concert today on the life and works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They will play works of this most famous child prodigy. Pieces on piano, clarinet, and violin will be the gift to the 25 seniors closely seated to fit in the music room. The scope and depth of this presentation is remarkable.
The siblings perform with ease, beauty, and generosity of spirit. Katie and Sean’s grandparents live far away in Taiwan, so the youngsters can rarely perform for them in person. However, their concert series gives Katie and Sean the opportunity to connect with other seniors, those who have laid the groundwork for their generation to thrive.
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I became one of their most ardent admirers after meeting them six years ago when they were so very “young.” Over the years, they have been tirelessly volunteering, and I have seen them grow both in their musical dexterity and as people. The regular, monthly programs they bring to the seniors in Chevy Chase, Potomac, Rockville, Gaithersburg, and northern Virginia have become a bright presence in the lives of those who live in senior facilities.
Katie and Sean are recipients of the Gold Awards from the President's Volunteer Service Award. AmeriCorps, the governmental agency that encourages and trains individuals to voluntarily contribute to a better world, provided the medals, a beautiful certificate, and a letter from the President of the United States.
Bravo!
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Local Musician Honored in Various Music Competitions
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Dylan Schenker, age 16, is a pianist-composer based in Bethesda, Maryland, who has been playing under the instruction of Mary Kading since age 5. He has been recognized nationally and internationally for his accomplishments in both composition and piano performance.
Dylan composes his music for the pleasure of his audiences and for his own artistic fulfillment. He aims to keep classical music alive and thriving with new pieces that are equally enjoyable for the performers as they are for the audience.
In 2023, Dylan was honored as a Winner of the American College of Musicians International Piano Composition Competition. He has also been recognized in previous years of the same contest. Dylan won first place in the 2023 WMTA Young Composer Competition for his Concert Etude No. 1, after which he performed the work at an honors recital.
Over the past few years, Dylan has earned local, state, national and international recognition for his piano performances. He performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall in January 2024, after winning an Honorable Mention in the 2023 American Virtuoso International Music Competition. In 2024, Dylan won first place in the Washington Music Teachers Association (WMTA) Hungarian Music Competition. In 2023, he won first place awards in both the WMTA Modern Music Competition and the Miriam S. Gottlieb Memorial Piano Competition. In 2023, Dylan also placed first in the state-level OPUS Music Competition in Maryland and advanced to the national OPUS competition, where he won a Merit Prize.
Dylan enjoyed the opportunity to participate in the 2023 Young Artist Program at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid, Spain, where he studied solo piano and chamber music leading up to a final recital in the Sony Auditorium. Dylan has performed at the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C. after winning the 2022 Luciana Montari-Mendola Young Pianist Award.
Dylan is also an avid chamber musician. In the summers of 2021 and 2022, he studied chamber music on both the piano and the violin at Point Counterpoint in Leicester, Vermont. He started performing with violinist Raymond Lim in early 2023, accompanying him at Carnegie Hall in October 2023 after the two won an earlier competition. In April 2024, performing as Duo Contento, Dylan and Raymond won an Honorable Mention at the Misbin Family Memorial Chamber Music Competition.
Dylan enjoys using his musical abilities to bring joy to others and to raise support for important public causes. He is a regular volunteer with the Tacy Foundation, leading concerts at senior living and rehabilitation facilities and providing regular piano lessons to a senior citizen living in low-income housing. In December 2023, Dylan presented his first solo full-length piano recital as a fundraiser to support first-line medical responders in a war zone’.
Dylan is a junior in the STEM Magnet Program at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, MD. His academic interests include applied math, statistics, physics, and computer science. Outside the practice room and the classroom, he enjoys studying chess, building and launching model rockets on his school’s team, and spending time with his family and his dog, Skipper.
This article was reproduced from Guild Notes, published by the National College of Musicians.
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Dr. Tacy Holliday, co-founder of the Tacy Foundation and former President of the Board, has published the children’s book, Libby’s Nose Knows.
It is a charming story of the dog Libby who “embarks on a mission to help a child find a lost toy. This book will warm your heart and inspire you to embrace what makes you special.”
The book is a perfect fit for The Reading Express video playlist for hospital patients anywhere, for children at the Uvalde public library in Texas, and for children’s libraries everywhere.
Dr. Tacy has offered to donate a portion of the book sales to the Foundation to thank all of you who support the Foundation’s mission of embracing what makes each person special and inspiring hope.
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Marie Kaplan and Min-Jeong Kim
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On June 26, student musicians from The Tacy Foundation performed for patients at the NIH Clinical Center as part of the NIH Patient Library’s new Tiny Twilight Concert series. The Tiny Twilight Concerts are held on select Tuesday evenings at 7:30 PM. The hope is to provide a calm, peaceful, and uplifting musical coda to what are often difficult days for the Clinical Center patients. Two patients expressed their enjoyment beautifully after the May 28th performance by The Tacy Foundation musicians:
THANK YOU so much for hosting and having this wonderful event for us all.
The evening was just beautiful, and so calming - brought us much peace.
We so very much appreciated all of it.
Sincerely, Shannon and Sean
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The performers, from left to right: Jules Amyot, Logan Liu, Audrey Lim, Dylan Schenker, Sophia Liu and Katie Hwang.
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The Closing NIH Youth Concert Series, 2023-2024
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Ms. Janice Durán, Event Manager for NIH, welcomes music of all instruments and voice for the benefit of patients, staff, and visitors. The performers shown below are amazing young artists. During and after the July concert, they expressed gratitude for the opportunity to play in the Hall of Hope.
This marked the close of the Tacy Foundation volunteers’ 2023-2024 Noon Concert Series. We are not sure when the name “Noon Youth Concert Series” appeared with our name, but we are delighted to be associated with such a series.
Two graduating seniors pictured here, Maximilian and Aidan, will be moving on to college. Another graduating senior, Riona Sheikh, designed the program brochures. We are very grateful for her talent in graphic art as well as in music.
We send our deepest appreciation and continued support to all of our graduates. They are welcome to join us any time they return home to visit. And we send our gratitude to all those (of all ages and levels of music study) who continue to play their music, without bragging or boasting, for the good of others at all of the many places where they light up the spirit of the elderly, the sick, and those who are looking for encouragement.
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Ms. Holliday, Akira Dasgupta (vocal), Sahana Srinivasan (piano), Maximilian Belyantsev (piano and Chief Intern), Aidan Paul (piano), Jules Amyot (cello). Missing in the photo is Yenna Kang (cello)
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Educational Mission: Foster youth development through music, story and mentoring
Philanthropic Mission: Empower youth to discover and use their gifts in service to others
Social Mission: Build community partnerships and create intergenerational connections
Whom We Serve
Seniors
Children
Teens
Service members
Veterans
Injured/sick
Economically disadvantaged
Individuals who want to serve
How We Serve (Programs)
Live music concerts
Reading Express®
Piano Pals®
Guitar Pals®
Composers’ Circle
Music USBs
Musical equipment
COVID projects through video, email, cards, puzzles for outreach to the community
Charlotte Holliday, Founder and Executive Director
Matthew D. Scott and Michael Tacy, Graphic Editors
Michael Favin, Chief Editor
Zoe Bell, Teen Editor
Max Belyanstev, Teen Editor
Donations are appreciated. All adult and teen staff are volunteers. No salaries or benefits. Every dollar you donate goes to supplies for all projects offered to the community.
Thank you!
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