On August 11, the San Diego students of AYLUS organized a fundraising concert for Deaf Community Services of San Diego (DCSSD) at the beautiful Casa de Mañana Retirement Community, which are next to the Children’s Pool at La Jolla Cove. They performed folk and ballet dances, recited poems, and played classical music instruments for senior citizens at the Casa de Mañana Retirement Community.
Most of the students were international or national award winners. They represented Bishop High School, Canyon Crest Academy High School, Torrey Pines High School, Del Norte High School. Carmel Valley Middle School, and R. Roger Rowe School at Rancho Santa Fe. Since some of the senior citizens had difficulty hearing well, the American Sign Language (ASL) was used to interpret for them. 130 senior citizens and guests attended the fundraising concert.
Anthony Nguyen, delegate of Congressman Scott Peters and Mr. Peters communications director, attended the concert. We were also honored to have the following VIPS at the concert, Mr. Justin Weber, Executive Director of Casa de Manana Retirement Community; Mrs. Patrica Sieglen-Perry, Executive Director of DCSSD; Ms. Kelly Hillegeist, Director of Casa de Manana Retirement Community; and Ms. Lisa Steifel, Director of Interpreter Services.
Grace Li, Amanda Zhang, and Michelle Lai kicked off the evening program with beautiful and graceful solo and duet dances.
Zoe Zhang performed the Hulusi Solo “Fern Leaf Hedge Bamboo in the Moonlight.” Kevin Li and Lynne Xu played the Flute Duet, “Jasmine”, a Chinese Folk Song.
Samantha Zhu performed the Ballet Solo, “En Volant.”
We had two beautiful sisters from Dallas, Texas, Chloe Feller and Anaïs Feller, playing the violin, flute, and piano.
Our Bishop student Eric Li played the Alto Saxophone Solo, “Andante and Allegro” by Andre Chailleux.
Ashley Zhang played the Piano Solo, “Sonata No.7 in C Major, K. 309” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Ethan Tran & Timothy Tran played the Violin & Guitar Duet, “Ashokan Farewell” by Jay Ungar.
David Kirk performed the Piano Solo, “Fantasia in C minor, BWV 906” by J.S. Bach.
Christopher Yang played the Viola Solo, “Viola Sonata, Impetuoso” by Rebecca Clarke.
Stephen Yang played the Cello Solo, “Sonata No. 3, Movement 1” by Ludwig Van Beethoven to end the concert.
Christopher Yang and Stephen Yang, representing AYLUS and the students, presented a check of $1,250 to Mrs. Patricia Sieglen-Perry of DCSSD.
The whole program were chaired by our two cohosts: Claire Jiang and Andrew Peng.
Chloe Feller, Dr. Cho Yuhn Park, and Zachary Zhu served as piano accompanists.
Last and most important, we had a Production Staff: Mike Bai, Sarah Cheng, Anthony Jiang, Claire Jiang, William Lai, Daniel Li, Samuel Li, Andrew Peng, Jackson Shen, Leon Wang, Andrew Zhang, Patrick Zhang. The fundraising concert is a big success with their dedicated behind the stage support and hard work.
