The recent Alberta forest fires displaced tens of thousands but motivated countless hearts with a call for national relief efforts and support. Tom Lee Music was motivated to create a national fundraising effort to help the residents of Fort McMurray recover from this disaster and return to their families and friends. Throughout the month of June, we were honoured and humbled by the display of empathy and compassion through a series of piano recitals at our eight locations in British Columbia and our four Steinway piano galleries across the country. Students were invited to collect pledges for their performances in support of this worthy cause.

On the afternoon of June 30th, our piano showroom at the Richmond Tom Lee Music was filled with compassion and musical expression. Students of renowned piano teacher Tongli gathered with family and friends for a charitable recital with one brilliant performance after another. Some of the students were quite young but all are highly educated with extraordinary talent. Many multi instrumentalists performed included Kathryn Wei on piano and violin. Her interpretations were both compelling and impressive, drawing the audience. Steven Zhang also performed on both saxophone and piano. His music can only be described as melodious and riveting. The final performance was a gorgeous duet from young pianists William Lin and Hannah Zhou. The duo performed with expressions of murmuring words and crystal clear sounds like rolling pearls.

Tom Lee Music was so inspired by the display of compassion and empathy from our students, parents and teachers that we were motivated to extend our Piano Play-A-Thon until the end of July. Your involvement is greatly appreciated in support of our national fundraising efforts to help the residents of Fort McMurray. The emergency may have passed but the community is still in great need of our support as they work to rebuild their city and home.

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