4/27/2025 Senior Center Performance

Authored by Rien Chen

Hello everyone! It's me, Rien, and I will be writing about our senior center performance today.

We kicked off this performance with Katallin Cheng gracefully dancing to Blue Bird from Sleeping Beauty. Katallin is confident and cheerful—she truly embodied a bluebird fluttering around the room! I won’t lie, her dainty little prancing absolutely made my day. It was a strong and delightful start to the show! All the seniors were uplifted and immediately asked how old she was after her performance.

Next up was my sister Elena Chen, performing the beautiful piece Summer of Goodbye by Satoshi Takebe. This wasn’t part of her regular piano lessons—she learned it on her own, which took a lot of dedicated practice. My mom plays this song on the car so often, but Elena's piano rendition gave me a new perspective on the music.

Afterwards, I played a piece everyone knows—Rondo Alla Turca, better known as the Turkish March by Mozart! This fast and powerful piano piece is truly a timeless classic. It felt like the seniors especially enjoyed the familiarity, judging by their warm applause.

Next, Grace Ma blew everyone away with her stunning rendition of General’s Mandate. I still can’t comprehend how she finds every note with such precision and speed—playing the guzheng is no easy feat! As always, several seniors gathered afterward, full of curiosity.

I proceeded to perform The Path of the Wind by Joe Hisaishi on the piano, a personal favorite of mine from his pieces. It is a very calming, flowy piece with great chord progressions.

Finally, Chloe Li played The Nightingale Variations by Mikhail Glinka, a quick and varied contemporary piece whose complexity added a great flourish to the end of the show.

After the show wrapped up, we had a sweet surprise waiting—we sang Happy Birthday to two of the seniors whose birthdays were coming up.

One of the seniors then asked us a thoughtful question: how much time we each spend practicing our instruments. We took turns answering— all of us said we practice about an hour a day. It was a nice moment of connection, and I think it showed the residents that we really do work hard behind the scenes.

Following the performance, we transitioned into our usual post-show activity: Bingo. Besides most of the performers, Tristan joined in to help run the game.

At the start of the game, everything was going pretty normal. The TV showed and announced the number and we helped call them out so the seniors could hear. However, not everything went totally smoothly today—some of the seniors gave us feedback that wasn’t exactly glowing. Some mentioned our voices were too loud while calling numbers, some others thought we were speaking too quietly...

Honestly, this made the mood a little heavy— It was hard to accommodate for both sides of preference. But we reminded ourselves that it’s not personal. Some seniors are just having a hard day, or maybe they’re used to a different routine. It’s part of the reality of volunteering at a senior home: not every moment will be heartwarming or perfect. Learning to accept that with grace—and still choosing to show up, smile, and give our best—is something I’m beginning to see as a deeper kind of growth.

It’s not always easy, but experiences like this are teaching us more than just performance skills. They’re showing us what it means to really serve with compassion and patience. And I think that’s a lesson worth carrying with us far beyond the music.

Performers: Katallin Cheng, Grace Ma, Elena Chen, Rien Chen, Chloe Li

Game Hosts: Tristan Shi, Chloe Li, Grace Ma, Elena Chen, Rien Chen

Performance host: Rien Chen