A concert fundraiser for a local library. A series of murals. An original book highlighting female composers. Over the summer, the Center for Service and Global Citizenship supported and funded projects across the country and the world, including noteworthy projects in the arts.
Yoonsa Lee ’25, a violist, performed in and organized a youth benefit concert series, with a goal of uplifting young musicians (ages 7 to 18) as well as raise funds for a renovation of her local library. She named her concert series Tutti — “a musical term that denotes that we should all play together as a singular entity,” she explained.
Lee chose to reflect this spirit of unity through a diverse program, showcasing a wide range of musicians and artists. Hoping to create accessible and fun performances, she performed many different types of repertoire.
Lee said that she hopes to continue this concert series throughout the rest of her time at Deerfield, especially because she received an outpouring of community support including from both students and faculty members. Albert Yuk ’26 captured photos of the concert, not only to remember the special afternoon, but also to promote future events in the series. Recapping the event’s success, Lee remarked, “We raised over 600 dollars for the local library.”
Kayleen Tang ’25 painted a mural in Hopkinton, Massachusetts designed to spread awareness about autism. The mural was part of a three-part series sponsored by Tang’s Town Cultural Council; she has created two other murals in the previous two years depicting facets of Chinese and Mexican culture. Tang’s most recent mural is a fence which leads up to a community park.
When discussing her aims for the mural, Tang shared, “I want to continue to uplift my community with paint.” According to Tang, she was not knowledgeable about autism and its effects until after her parents had explained it to her. She wanted to reflect educational conversations like her own with her parents by, figuratively and literally, painting autism in a positive light. She hopes to continue this series with a different underrepresented group in the future.
Daphne Huang ’25, Liv Boe ’25 and Chloe Xue ’25, titled their project “Uplifting Women Composers.” Huang remarked, “Growing up, Liv, Chloe, and I did not see any women composers reflected in our repertoire, and this made it discouraging for us to continue.” “In response, we started to create a violin book called Maestra, the female version of the word Maestro, which is what we call male composers.”
On Sunday, September 24, Huang, Boe, and Xue departed campus to present at the Hampshire Music Club, where they performed music from 10 different female composers, including spoken overviews of their histories. When discussing the challenges of creating such a book, Huang described how Boe, Xue, and herself need to be very specific about what the objectives are.
Their book, which is still in its early stages, will be half history and half tutorial-based, detailing the history of some female composers while also teaching string/instrumental techniques through female compositions.
Their biggest challenge has been deciding whether to focus on building good habits through specific finger exercises or to focus on building players’ confidence, perhaps forgoing some technique. “For example, there are different ways of pressing the same note with different fingers. The pinky might be used instead of the index finger for better sound; however, it is obviously easier to utilize your index finger,” Huang said.
Although the book includes works only from female composers, the book is intended for learners of all genders. “We want female composers to be part of the classical canon,” said Huang. “These composers are just as good, arguably [more impressive] than their male counterparts, [in lieu of] the oppression they faced,” stated Huang. Huang, Boe, and Xue hope to begin selling the book at the Women in Music Concert in Spring 2024.