Concert winds up GiveGuide! campaign
PORTLAND – George Miller, an accomplished pianist and composer, stood on the balcony of Music Millennium, the oldest and largest record store in the Pacific Northwest, and spoke to customers throughout the store about how music education changed his life.
“Access to music education can really make a child’s life something else,” he said. Miller knows of what he’s speaks, having studied with Play It Forward and its Artistic Director, Michael Allen Harrison, for more than a decade. George is attending the San Francisco Conservatory on a full scholarship, and his mother,
Loana Hoots, expressed gratitude to PIF for supporting his studies all these years. “It’s changed all of us, and we’re just so grateful,” she said.
Miller was one of a handful of young people who have studied with PIF to perform the afternoon of Dec. 27 at the record store, which served as a business partner to Play It Forward during the annual Willamette Week GiveGuide! campaign. PIF was one of more than 270 nonprofits selected by GiveGuide! to receive donations through its portal at giveguide.org this year. As of Dec. 28, 125 donations totaling almost $20,000 had gone to PIF. The campaign was set to conclude Dec. 31.
Ode to Joy
The PIF student concert featured a variety of seasonal selections, including Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” performed by PIF students from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School on guitar, along with Travis Johnson, PIF’s Program Manager.
Violet Jones has studied with PIF for two years at Dr. MLK Jr. “I wanted to be in PIF because a lot of my friends were in Play It Forward, and I wanted to play guitar,” she said. Her fellow student Mabel Janicki said she switched from playing ukulele to guitar because “it sounded really cool.”
The children’s parents seemed delighted to hear the public performance. Tanya Zhu, mother of Mabel, noted her daughter had also performed at various PIF events, including last January, in the lobby before an Oregon Symphony concert. “Music … is a wonderful way to introduce yourself to the world,” she said.
Violet’s parents, Chris and Katherine Jones, said they appreciated the fact PIF lessons take place onsite at Dr. MLK Jr. “I think having music education integrated with school is a really way to keep her excited about school,” Katherine said of Violet.
Other student performers included Gus Crooks, a junior at Catlin Gaebel School, who started with PIF at KairosPDX School and has continued studying piano virtually with Harrison, after graduating Kairos. Play It Forward provided him with free lessons and a free instrument, he said, and inspired him to develop a love for music. “It was really transformational for me,” he said.
Article written by Rob Cullivan
