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June 2026

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.

Director’s Corner

Summer is here at last!

Our loyal, talented youth are playing music and visiting with seniors. They are sharing summer plans for travel to homelands all over the world: almost all of the seniors have been worldwide travelers! They are most interested in the world these days.

At this time of year, recruiting and training for piano and guitar pals for children and seniors has begun. New Chief Interns are assuming leadership in every facility. The Life Stories project will grow as teens’ time becomes available for conversations with seniors whose life journeys bring wisdom and modify aspirations for the young. Young composers study with alumni (see the portal selections). What a lineup of graduations to celebrate from elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as college and graduate schools! New senior facilities have heard of us and are asking for our kids to join them. It is such a joy to hear that our kids and their music are known, wanted and needed.

We are hearing wonderful news from alums who are receiving doctoral, masters, and bachelor’s degrees. The fact that our former volunteers write to us, send photos, and/or join us while they are in the area demonstrates their dedication and fond memories of their time dedicated to making other folks feel better. It seems that our volunteers become sojourners in paths less traveled. They walk up mountains to see the world they love and want to bring their strengths, joys and knowledge everywhere they go.

When they join our children and teens in live music, pitch in to strengthen an ongoing project, encourage a teen, or simply send a warm and grateful text, all of our lives and our work take on a new resolve to keep on keeping on.

I would also like to acknowledge Mike Favin, our newsletter editor. He retired at the end of 2018 after a career in international public health in which he worked in approximately 30 countries around the world. His research, writing, and editing in public health, as well as his appreciation of other languages and cultures, provided an excellent preparation for editing our newsletter.

Thank you for another extraordinary school year, everyone!

Sending out sounds of hope and healing to you all!

Charlotte Holliday, Founder & Executive Director

Piano Pals at Tanglewood

Olivia Dziasek

I am the lead mentor at the Tanglewood Apartments Piano Pals. The program has flourished this year, with many new students enrolling and new mentors finding interest in the program!

The enthusiasm of each elementary-school student has been at an all-time high this year: every Saturday each child is so excited to get the opportunity to learn more piano skills.

Even parents feel the passion. All of them have been so grateful for the Piano Pals program as a whole.

We hosted two recitals this year, one in winter and one in spring, at which children had the opportunity to play for their parents the pieces they had practiced so hard.

The community is so heartfelt, and everyone is always encouraging one another. Parents even encourage me as the lead mentor to play for everyone at the recitals. Overall, it has been a very successful year, and I am so excited for what next year brings!

Reflections of a Piano Pals Mentor

Ryan Leung

This is my second year participating in Piano Pals at Tanglewood, and this year I had the privilege of serving as a co-chief intern. Music has always been an important part of my life. I have been playing the piano since I was five years old and the violin since I was ten. Music gives me a way to express myself artistically, while also helping me stay grounded and relaxed in the day to day chaos of high school, academics, and everyday stress.

One of the most rewarding parts of Piano Pals has been the opportunity to share my love of music with younger students and watch them grow week by week. Piano Pals creates a supportive environment where students can build confidence, develop their musical skills, and experience the joy of performing. As mentors, we work closely with students during their lessons and encourage them to improve technically and not worry about making mistakes.

A recent recital at Tanglewood was especially meaningful for me. I still remember my own first recital, how nervous I felt beforehand and the sense of accomplishment afterward. Watching my students perform brought back those memories. I could see both the nerves and excitement in them, and I was incredibly proud of what they achieved. Seeing their hard work pay off and knowing that I played a small role in helping them gain confidence and grow as musicians was deeply rewarding.

Piano Pals has been such a meaningful experience for me because it combines two things I care deeply about: music and mentorship. I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the Tacy Foundation community and help inspire younger students through music.

New Pianos Donated to Local Hospitals

Zoe Bell, Tacy Foundation alumna

This article was originally published in Montgomery Magazine on June 1.

Tacy Foundation volunteer Sainandika Nair plays the new Kawai digital keyboard. (Courtesy of The Tacy Foundation)

The piano in the lobby of Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring was in poor condition, making it difficult for teen volunteers to perform live music for patients and staff.

“Some of the notes would stick or they were just terribly out of tune,” Charlotte Holliday, a piano teacher and the founder and executive director of The Tacy Foundation, told Montgomery Magazine.

“One leg was so broken that it actually wasn’t even touching the ground,” Richard Pederson, the president of The Tacy Foundation, said. “So a knock in the right direction — or wrong direction — could have tumbled the whole thing.”

Thanks to the local music-based nonprofit, two Holy Cross Hospitals in Montgomery County — Silver Spring and Germantown — now house new Kawai digital keyboards in their lobbies as of late March. The two keyboards have a retail value of more than $10,000.

Charlotte Holliday, far left, Richard Pederson, far right, and student volunteers in front of the new digital keyboard. (Courtesy of The Tacy Foundation)

The Tacy Foundation is a Germantown-based nonprofit launched in 2008 to empower children and teens in the Washington, D.C., area to share hope with people in need through music.

Student volunteers played the new pianos for the first time earlier this spring. The young musicians are among the hundreds of students who perform live music at dozens of senior residences and hospitals in Maryland, Virginia and D.C., according to Pederson.

The Tacy Foundation began bringing live music to Holy Cross Germantown Hospital in early 2018. “People in the lobby do stop and listen,” Pederson said.

“[Providing brand new pianos] up[s] the quality of the music that the kids are giving out, and [we] know that we have made a contribution,” Pederson added. “Rather than just taking what was available … we put our money where our mouth is in terms of giving the audience the opportunity to hear the best sound by our wonderful volunteer musicians.”

“We wanted to make sure there was an equal playing field for pianists who can’t put [their instruments] in their backpack and go play,” Holliday said.

Tacy Foundation volunteer Anirudh Ghodgaonkar plays a new Kawai digital keyboard at Holy Cross Germantown Hospital. (Courtesy of The Tacy Foundation)

The longtime piano teacher said that while the young pianists didn’t complain, they seemed “a little more reluctant to come” to Holy Cross for volunteer opportunities due to the quality of the old pianos.

“There were more instrumentalists than pianists at one point,” Holliday said.

She went through Schaeffer’s Piano Company to purchase both digital keyboards, which she said feel and sound authentic: “They shade and mold phrases like a real piano. I’m just amazed.”

The keyboards, being digital, don’t require any maintenance or tuning, and they take up less space compared to the previous Steinway, according to Holliday.

“As soon as we put the pianos in, there were eight kids who came to play that Saturday,” Holliday said.

The hospital staff at both Holy Cross locations also expressed excitement.

“[The installation] was in the middle of the day … and the staff came out at Silver Spring. They were just absolutely thrilled,” Holliday said. “It was very well received happily in both places.”

The Tacy Foundation’s philosophy is that music is known to help with healing, according to Holliday.

“This was discovered in the 1800s by a doctor in France who went around and noted those people who had studied music — or who had played music or even listened to music — how their healing was facilitated better,” Holliday said. “Certainly, they needed medicine [or] surgery, but this facilitated a more complete and faster recovery.”

The finding has continued to the present day, and many health care institutions across the nation have active music and arts programs for patients.

“The value of music is proven,” Pederson said, adding that the Tacy Foundation’s motto is “inspiring hope, note by note.”

Holliday thanked Schaeffer’s for the delivery of the digital keyboards and the removal of the two old pianos, which the company took to reuse the parts.

“Almost with the blink of an eye, they had the instruments ready to go, and they had the movers ready to take them and deliver them,” she said. “They know me, so they know this is what we do. We go out in the community, and we do our best to raise the hearts and the minds of not just the elderly, but of the young people, to connect.”

“I want to thank the two hospitals for promoting the notion that music heals and that music provides healing and hope for the days ahead,” Holliday said.

Zoe Bell is the web manager for The Tacy Foundation, responsible for formatting and disseminating this newsletter. She was among the first group of students who brought music CDs to the Hopkins Breast Cancer Center in Baltimore when she was 6 years old.

The Tacy Foundation

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

Michael Tacy and Zoe Bell, Graphic Editors

Michael Favin, Chief 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!