Johan S.

I believe my work can be a catalyst for a healthier, vibrant, and equitable community. By giving children in underserved communities the opportunity to have these musical encounters, we are giving them hope and a means to a brighter path ahead of them. I was given these opportunities by my teachers and my mentors, and I wish to give that back to the communities I grew up in. I believe music is a universal language, a universal gift to others, which can be used to uplift spirits and uplift emotions. By teaching this, we can lift the spirits of struggling students and give them an outlet for their diminished emotions. Sometimes the best performers weren't the best in school or at a sport, but they were the best in expressing emotion through music. My work is in finding those struggling students and giving them this opportunity to learn something new: a whole new world where they can find themselves and find new and different opportunities they wouldn't have had otherwise.