High Schoolers Bringing Music to Seniors, Even During a Pandemic

Lighting Up Lives recruits high schoolers to provide music recitals for senior home and assisted living community residents in Arizona, and the program has gone virtual to keep entertaining during the pandemic, reports Tucson Local Media . The Lighting Up Lives Youth Musician Recitals YouTube channel has been showcasing past performances with live audiences and studio performances since the onset of COVID-19. Lighting Up Lives held its first virtual concert on Zoom to seniors at Fidelity Care Corner and Normandel Place on July 2. "I think this project is important to me since Arizona has such a large population of elders and retirees," said Lighting Up Lives member and high school junior Michael Xia. "It's best for a kid like me to help them out, especially in a situation like now." Program founder April Zhang admitted that virtual performances lose live interaction with audiences, "but we are looking to go with live performances and get interaction through live streaming platforms to better replicate the experience for the seniors." She said the next step for the organization is "to grow our subscribers on our YouTube channel, consistently to post more content, and invite more musicians from different schools. We want to diversify the kind of instruments we have and the music we play too."