Northview Chamber Music Society performs recitals in and outside of the school to give back to the community through music

Special, Joline Tran

Milly Miao, Staff Writer & Disha Kumar, Editor-in-Chief

Through the years, the Northview Chamber Music Society (NCMS) has strived to bring music to people around the community. Members of the NCMS are passionate musicians that wish to spread joy using music.

“Our mission is to promote music and guide [members to] have recitals to perform to give back to the communities,” Joline Tran, co-president of NCMS, said.

Northview students may have noticed recitals from the NCMS ensembles during the school day or one of the performances from International Night by the Omen Trio, but the NCMS also gives recitals outside of school in senior living centers. 

“We have played in the auditorium for the students, teachers, faculty, and parents to listen to,” Tran said. “[But our] main intention is [performing] at senior living centers to give back to the community and to perform for our seniors.”

NCMS co-president Jensi Perng works together with Tran to organize meetings and book recitals for the music society and spread music around the community. They also create smaller ensembles within the NCMS that perform at senior living centers. In one of the recitals, Perng noticed the positive impact NCMS has had on senior living centers. 

“When we went to Memory Care, one of the [elders] stood up and started dancing along to the music. I was like, ‘that is so cute, oh my goodness.’ That's never happened before,” Perng said. “[For] classical music, you’re expected to sit there and be quiet, [but] you can still enjoy it even if it's not as carefree of an environment as [other] styles can be.”

Because NCMS gives performances almost monthly, the members have to perform in front of audiences all the time. Zuming Fan, co-vice president of NCMS, expresses that the recitals provide the space that allows members to express their passion for music.

“Performance, in general, is a really nervous event, but I believe that the performance is pretty relaxed because it's a stage for us to not only show our abilities [but also] our passion,” Fan said. “That's why I think when performing, we have [a] more relaxed mood.”

The 20-30 members of NCMS meet up every Thursday to practice for their monthly recitals. As the recitals get closer, the music society meets two days a week to prepare. Every member dedicates time to the music society, and Jeremy Woolstenhulme, the club sponsor, has seen that. 

“[They are] extremely mature and self-motivated, obviously, because they're the ones coming up with their concert,” Woolstenhulme said. 

Being a part of the music society is a great opportunity for musicians to give back to the community by doing what they enjoy. 

“I do Northview Music Society because I love volunteering, and I think music is such an easy way to promote that a little bit,” Tran said. “It’s also a way for [people] to bond by playing.”

The music society would like others to express their enjoyment of music through recitals too. In the future, NCMS hopes to expand to more music styles to prompt others to join. 

“We want our chamber music society to not only focus on chamber music, but we want to encourage more people to participate in using [all] music, like pop music or classical music,” Fan said.

Additionally, it is a very enriching time for its members. The NCMS is a place that allows musicians to utilize music to influence others. 

“Music is a very powerful medium. I feel like everyone's had a moment where they're listening to a particularly powerful song, and they're like ‘wow this is really nice,’” Perng said. “I think it's a different thing to be playing that powerful music and to know that you're having an impact on someone else's life.”