1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:13,600 ant onsite music 2 00:00:13,600 --> 00:00:18,880 Let's sit down and sing no more Let's sit down and sing no more 3 00:00:18,880 --> 00:00:21,620 Let's sit down and sing no more. 4 00:00:21,620 --> 00:00:22,280 In the dark يا・・ 5 00:00:22,260 --> 00:00:23,160 Let's fighting up! 6 00:00:23,700 --> 00:00:25,720 To the Sky artificial 7 00:00:25,900 --> 00:00:28,520 Let's sit down and sing no more These are the rocks 8 00:00:29,020 --> 00:00:35,600 La sa지는 9 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:45,880 Welcome back to another episode of The PianoPod. 10 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:48,120 I'm your host Yukimi-san. 11 00:00:48,120 --> 00:00:53,280 And today's episode is a heartwarming, emotionally moving, and inspiring one. 12 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:58,080 So I suggest you to have facial tissue or handkerchief handy. 13 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:02,360 So for anyone listening or watching The PianoPod for the first time, welcome. 14 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:05,480 I'm a classical pianist and educator from New York City. 15 00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:11,240 And this podcast is for anyone who plays the piano, loves listening to piano music, or 16 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:17,960 for someone who is currently pursuing a career in piano or works in the music industry professionally. 17 00:01:17,960 --> 00:01:22,320 In each episode, we interview a guest speaker who has been breaking exciting new ground 18 00:01:22,320 --> 00:01:23,880 in the music industry. 19 00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:29,280 Before getting started, I want to thank amazing TPP fans and listeners for tuning in. 20 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:33,920 Please rate the show and review it on Apple Podcasts because every rating review will 21 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:35,880 help people find the show. 22 00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:38,720 So let me reveal the name of the guest. 23 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:46,760 It's Dr. Jihoon Kerska, the founder of Keys to Success, MIT graduate, electronic engineer, 24 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:48,160 and pianist. 25 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:52,480 Since the launch of The PianoPod, I wanted to interview her so badly because I have been 26 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:57,200 following Dr. Kerska and her work for Keys to Success on social media. 27 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:02,080 And even from what I saw on social, what she's been doing through this nonprofit organization 28 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:03,720 is outstanding. 29 00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:06,480 So what exactly is Keys to Success? 30 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:12,320 Well, you're about to find more about this amazing organization directly from the founder, 31 00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:13,400 Jihoon. 32 00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:17,760 But let me share what it says on its website. 33 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:22,800 Keys to Success was founded by Jihoon Kerska, a Julia-trained classical musician with a 34 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:29,520 doctorate in electrical engineering from MIT, who wanted to provide the young children 35 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:32,400 of new work, the cultural enrichment. 36 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:37,800 So I just finished interviewing her a few minutes ago and wow, Jihoon is an incredible 37 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:43,560 person, strong, kind, generous, plus a great storyteller. 38 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:49,120 So please stick with me till the end of the episode because you get to hear how she overcame 39 00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:53,960 her own challenges in her youth and became who she is today. 40 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:55,680 So off we go. 41 00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:57,480 Please enjoy the show. 42 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:05,840 You are listening to The PianoPod, where we talk to the brightest minds in the industry 43 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:12,680 about how they are bringing the piano into the 21st century. 44 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:18,920 I am delighted and honored to welcome Dr. Jihoon Kerska, the founder of Keys to Success, 45 00:03:18,920 --> 00:03:22,080 electrical engineer, and pianist. 46 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:27,600 Keys to Success is a program she founded in 2016 to improve the lives of children growing 47 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:32,640 up in the most underserved areas in Newark, New Jersey through music education. 48 00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:39,040 Dr. Kerska studied piano in the Juliette Pre-College program and has an extensive performance career 49 00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:44,440 playing at prestigious concert venues such as Boston Symphony Hall and Lincoln Center. 50 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:49,080 She also has had the opportunity to perform with the world-renowned cellist, Mr. Yo-Yo 51 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:54,680 Ma, while enjoying her musical path, she decided to pursue academics and engineering 52 00:03:54,680 --> 00:04:01,580 at MIT and achieve the highest degree, Ph.D., in electrical engineering and computer science. 53 00:04:01,580 --> 00:04:06,760 She continued her engineering career in the semiconductor industry for the following 20 54 00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:07,760 years. 55 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:12,600 During that time, Dr. Kerska was actively involved in the Newark community and a series 56 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:15,160 of projects for its youth. 57 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:21,040 Through this experience, she so firsthand the effects of generational economic disparity. 58 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:26,640 As a result, she developed a passion for investing in youth lives, ultimately leading to her 59 00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:31,360 decision to withdraw from her engineering career and work full-time with the children 60 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:34,880 of Newark by founding Keys to Success. 61 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:38,840 So Jihoon, welcome, and thank you for being on my show. 62 00:04:38,840 --> 00:04:39,840 Yay. 63 00:04:39,840 --> 00:04:40,840 Great. 64 00:04:40,840 --> 00:04:41,840 It's my pleasure. 65 00:04:41,840 --> 00:04:45,720 Finally here, I've been wanting to interview you since the launch of this show and whether 66 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:50,200 someone recommended to be in touch with you or somehow we were connected on Instagram. 67 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:54,960 So I've been following you on social and love your work at Keys to Success. 68 00:04:54,960 --> 00:05:00,080 And before getting into your incredible life, once a Juliette Pre-College student turned 69 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:05,240 to become the engineer with a Ph.D. from MIT with a full-right scholarship, oh my gosh. 70 00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:09,040 So I think everybody wants to know what is Keys to Success? 71 00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:14,280 I mean, dropping all this amazing career and then you found this wonderful organization. 72 00:05:14,280 --> 00:05:15,960 So let's start with that. 73 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:20,520 We'll talk more detail later, but briefly, what is Keys to Success? 74 00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:25,560 Well, Keys to Success, we bring classical music training, particularly focusing on the 75 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:28,240 piano, to students in Newark. 76 00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:34,160 The main difference of what we do is that we go to the students. 77 00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:40,200 We go into the neighborhoods and deliver the piano lessons there, rather than having the 78 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:42,720 students come to a central location. 79 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:49,160 And the other thing that we do slightly differently is that the program is 100% free for everyone 80 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:50,640 who is involved. 81 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:57,560 So we don't charge the families and we also don't charge the whole institution. 82 00:05:57,560 --> 00:06:01,080 And the reason we do that is for the sake of equity. 83 00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:02,080 Wonderful. 84 00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:04,720 And then currently, how many students are involved? 85 00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:10,040 We have 150 students slightly over right now involved in Keys to Success. 86 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:13,240 And the age range is very large. 87 00:06:13,240 --> 00:06:17,920 We start as young as pre-K and we go all the way through high school. 88 00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:22,960 And our goal is always that we try to stay with the students as long as we're able to. 89 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:28,640 Before being an engineer and before being this nonprofit founder, you started as a musician. 90 00:06:28,640 --> 00:06:30,760 Music is a big part of your life. 91 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:32,720 So let's start with that. 92 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:34,160 What's the relationship to music? 93 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:37,280 How did you discover the love for music? 94 00:06:37,280 --> 00:06:39,080 I'm a Malaysian. 95 00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:44,240 I was born in Malaysia and Chinese Malaysian, actually. 96 00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:50,520 And if you know anything about that culture, pretty much every little Chinese girl in Malaysia 97 00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:54,240 grows up playing the piano, at least during my era. 98 00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:57,800 And so it wasn't anything unusual that I played the piano. 99 00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:01,680 But what was unusual was my mother. 100 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:06,440 My mother was particularly ambitious for her kids. 101 00:07:06,440 --> 00:07:12,600 And she was determined that we weren't just going to play the piano like everybody else, 102 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:14,880 but that we were going to be the best in the whole country. 103 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:19,680 So yeah, it's Taige mom to the nth degree. 104 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:27,720 So my mom, she knew how to help us practice. 105 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:29,280 That was the main thing. 106 00:07:29,280 --> 00:07:34,400 So ever since we started piano at the age of six, we practice a lot. 107 00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:41,200 And in Malaysia, they go through the basically a British system, Royal Conservatory, right? 108 00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:43,880 So we would take those exams every year. 109 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:47,480 And actually, I guess, you know, when you practice that much, you end up being pretty 110 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:48,520 good. 111 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:50,760 So my sister and I, I have a twin sister. 112 00:07:50,760 --> 00:07:55,480 My sister and I would consistently get, you know, the highest marks in the whole country 113 00:07:55,480 --> 00:07:57,400 and things like that. 114 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:03,480 So fast forward, we come to America when I was 11 years old, our entire family immigrated 115 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:08,760 to America and primarily for our sake to give us opportunities. 116 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:16,800 And my mom, you know, she decides, hey, you know, I heard Julia is a really good school. 117 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:19,160 Why don't we just see if we can get in? 118 00:08:19,160 --> 00:08:24,040 So she calls up Julia pre-college and it just so happened. 119 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:29,520 She was able to get through to Olenia Fuski, who was the director of the pre-college program 120 00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:30,520 in the 80s. 121 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:37,360 Fuski listened to us and she knew that we weren't actually quite at the Juliet level, 122 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:39,240 but she wanted to invest in us. 123 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:41,400 So Fuski took us under her wing. 124 00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:47,800 And literally for a year and a half, I was back down doing five finger scales and completely 125 00:08:47,800 --> 00:08:50,240 redoing my whole technique. 126 00:08:50,240 --> 00:08:54,680 And of course, later when she entered us into the audition, we got in. 127 00:08:54,680 --> 00:08:55,680 Wow. 128 00:08:55,680 --> 00:08:56,680 Yeah. 129 00:08:56,680 --> 00:09:01,400 Ms. Fuski, actually, she's really quite an unusual person. 130 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:05,880 She's still alive and I actually just saw her recently at the pre-college reunion. 131 00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:07,560 Oh, wow, really? 132 00:09:07,560 --> 00:09:08,560 Yeah. 133 00:09:08,560 --> 00:09:09,560 Wow. 134 00:09:09,560 --> 00:09:12,480 It was really emotional for all of us to get together again. 135 00:09:12,480 --> 00:09:13,960 I bet. 136 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:20,080 And then I know I read your articles and everything and you mentioned that your mom would, you 137 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:27,720 would sacrifice her time and effort in your education and would have a round trip to taking 138 00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:32,280 subway and buses to just for you to get into Juliet pre-college. 139 00:09:32,280 --> 00:09:35,760 Fuski lives up in the Bronx area. 140 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:41,880 So we went all the way from Queens taking subway and then the bus and then walking a 141 00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:44,880 little bit and yeah, it was quite the trip. 142 00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:47,880 I actually watched your performance. 143 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:53,480 This is like totally pretty recent, so that's like turned the clock forward and 2020, I 144 00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:56,920 think it's during pandemic 2020 or 2021. 145 00:09:56,920 --> 00:10:26,480 We were performing variations on a theme of Corelli by Rachmaninoff and yeah, marvelous. 146 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:35,080 You know, Miss Fuski's teaching style was that she actually really pushed us hard by 147 00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:37,840 entering us into competitions. 148 00:10:37,840 --> 00:10:42,320 So we were constantly in competitions and constantly performing. 149 00:10:42,320 --> 00:10:49,480 For me, you know, it was actually so important to have that because as my mother actually 150 00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:52,840 couple of years after arriving in America got cancer. 151 00:10:52,840 --> 00:10:59,240 It was cancer of the breast and back in the 80s, there really was not a lot of good treatment 152 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:00,240 for that. 153 00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:04,600 So it was very traumatic for her and as a result for my sister and I as well. 154 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:10,600 But even as her treatment when up and down through all kinds of changes, I could focus 155 00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:12,240 on music. 156 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:17,280 I could focus on just learning a piece and getting ready for the competition and having 157 00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:20,720 a goal to keep me going. 158 00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:27,840 For me, you know, that is stabilized me and it helped me feel like I had a place in this 159 00:11:27,840 --> 00:11:34,320 new country, even though things in my life was very tumultuous. 160 00:11:34,320 --> 00:11:38,720 My sister and I in particular performed a lot because you know, twins. 161 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:44,400 So Miss Fuski actually had to work on the two piano repertoire, two piano contratos 162 00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:47,840 as well as two piano, just two piano music. 163 00:11:47,840 --> 00:11:53,720 And we actually played with several orchestras because of that. 164 00:11:53,720 --> 00:12:00,840 Actually probably the most significant one I would say was in my junior year, which was 165 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:01,840 1985. 166 00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:09,080 Miss Fuski arranged for my sister and I to perform with the orchestra in every Fisher 167 00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:10,560 Hall, Lincoln Center. 168 00:12:10,560 --> 00:12:13,320 And we were playing Carnival of the Animals. 169 00:12:13,320 --> 00:12:20,760 At that time, my mom was actually really sick because the cancer went from breast into her 170 00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:21,760 liver. 171 00:12:21,760 --> 00:12:24,280 It just went over the body. 172 00:12:24,280 --> 00:12:29,160 So she had not been able to come out of bed for a while by then. 173 00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:35,000 But on the day of the concert, she just decided this is important. 174 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:36,800 This is why we came to America. 175 00:12:36,800 --> 00:12:41,600 This is why I worked my whole life in Sacrifice Corps family, right? 176 00:12:41,600 --> 00:12:44,160 And she willed herself out of bed. 177 00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:48,560 She got dressed, put on makeup, and she actually looked really good. 178 00:12:48,560 --> 00:12:51,840 I remember seeing her in the audience, right? 179 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:56,560 I remember seeing her, even though she was already very shrunken. 180 00:12:56,560 --> 00:12:58,840 I could see the pride in her face. 181 00:12:58,840 --> 00:13:01,480 I could see that she was happy. 182 00:13:01,480 --> 00:13:06,600 That turned out to be really one of the biggest performances my sister and I did in high school. 183 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:09,920 But it was also the last one that my mom saw. 184 00:13:09,920 --> 00:13:12,720 She passed away a couple of weeks after that. 185 00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:18,600 So she just pulled herself together to see this amazing concert, one of the best concerts 186 00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:20,160 you ever gave. 187 00:13:20,160 --> 00:13:22,800 She must know something at that time. 188 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:23,800 Yeah, definitely. 189 00:13:23,800 --> 00:13:24,800 Wow. 190 00:13:24,800 --> 00:13:26,600 And that's so devastating. 191 00:13:26,600 --> 00:13:33,080 What sort of trauma you had to go through, even just to taking care of your mother in 192 00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:35,480 such a young age. 193 00:13:35,480 --> 00:13:39,840 But still, you have to focus on your academics. 194 00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:45,040 And then also, plus, what's amazing is, as you're going through this hard times, but 195 00:13:45,040 --> 00:13:48,600 you have these amazing opportunities to be able to perform. 196 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:50,760 Yeah, yeah, that's incredible. 197 00:13:50,760 --> 00:13:57,280 And what struck me about that phase of your life, you wrote a little note to your mom 198 00:13:57,280 --> 00:13:59,600 after she passed away. 199 00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:01,480 And it's like a poem. 200 00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:04,680 And let me just read it for my audience. 201 00:14:04,680 --> 00:14:07,560 My house falls down every day. 202 00:14:07,560 --> 00:14:11,280 Jump to break the ceiling, but it is too high. 203 00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:15,120 Try to leap out window, but the crowds cheer me. 204 00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:16,920 It's different there next door. 205 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:18,800 The house will never fall. 206 00:14:18,800 --> 00:14:23,400 I can get there if I knock hard enough. 207 00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:31,160 That is a beautiful poem, but tells me how desperate you were. 208 00:14:31,160 --> 00:14:39,040 And I'm sure there is a sense of isolation and loneliness, not only from the loss of 209 00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:40,040 your mother. 210 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:45,600 So, but how were you able to survive that phase? 211 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:51,520 Looking back, I know that I'm a child of charity, really. 212 00:14:51,520 --> 00:14:58,880 For sure, my piano teacher played a huge role, because she didn't stop entering us into competitions 213 00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:05,960 and after my mom died, she actually stepped up in her role in taking care of my sister 214 00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:06,960 and I. 215 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:10,040 But also, the extended family helped. 216 00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:11,800 My dad was always there. 217 00:15:11,800 --> 00:15:16,760 My dad, I don't talk about him much, because he was more in the background compared to 218 00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:17,760 my mom. 219 00:15:17,760 --> 00:15:24,600 But after my mom passed away, he definitely stepped more into my life. 220 00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:27,800 And he is a different kind of, he's a gentle parent. 221 00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:30,280 He's not that Taiga mom. 222 00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:39,120 So, we also had a church, the minister, and even the congregation, they continued to stay 223 00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:41,280 in my life, really. 224 00:15:41,280 --> 00:15:44,600 One of them actually ended up coming to my wedding. 225 00:15:44,600 --> 00:15:46,000 This was like 20 years later. 226 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:48,520 It was like a long time later, right? 227 00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:53,720 We certainly didn't make it in this country, because of pulling ourselves up by our own 228 00:15:53,720 --> 00:15:54,720 bootstraps. 229 00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:56,960 We had a lot of people helping us, right? 230 00:15:56,960 --> 00:16:03,480 I have a very distant, somewhat distant cousin who grew up in America. 231 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:07,160 He was a professor at NYU. 232 00:16:07,160 --> 00:16:14,280 And he and his wife at the time took my sister and I around to visit different colleges and 233 00:16:14,280 --> 00:16:16,800 introduced us to MIT. 234 00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:23,160 So we're definitely, and then not to mention so many relatives who sent money and just 235 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:26,120 kind of made sure we were okay. 236 00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:32,280 I won't say it's easy, but I also know now that I'm older, my experience is also not 237 00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:33,280 unique. 238 00:16:33,280 --> 00:16:38,960 You know, especially with the kids and the families that I work with these days, I find 239 00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:46,760 so much resonance in that, you know, this is not a unique story. 240 00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:52,840 This episode is presented in collaboration with our good friends at Forte, a free alternative 241 00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:55,880 to Zoom, purpose-built for music teachers. 242 00:16:55,880 --> 00:17:02,040 I'm happy to announce that Forte will always be free from music teachers, no strings attached. 243 00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:07,120 That's right, Forte offers features optimized for classical music lessons, including audio 244 00:17:07,120 --> 00:17:13,000 quality, foster barrier to existing platforms and allowing you to hear every nuance of your 245 00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:14,600 students' instrument. 246 00:17:14,600 --> 00:17:20,120 Their colleagues at the Royal College of Music, Aspen Music Festival and Curtis Institute 247 00:17:20,120 --> 00:17:25,560 and Berkeley College of Music have even used Forte in their own programs. 248 00:17:25,560 --> 00:17:31,840 This mission is to radically expand access to high-quality music education worldwide. 249 00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:35,400 Forte always puts teachers and their students first. 250 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:40,400 This means you can use Forte with your own students for free forever. 251 00:17:40,400 --> 00:17:45,160 And Forte will soon introduce paid features allowing you to connect with new students 252 00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:46,640 around the world. 253 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:54,280 Sign up for free today at fortelessons.com, that's F-O-R-T-E-L-E-S-S-O-N-S.com, or click 254 00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:56,760 the link in the description. 255 00:17:56,760 --> 00:17:58,760 Let's continue with the episode. 256 00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:05,560 So then, you know, after really pre-college, you decided to pursue your career in engineering, 257 00:18:05,560 --> 00:18:11,640 so you went, you were accepted by MIT of all places. 258 00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:15,200 And then did you go from undergraduate until? 259 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:16,200 Yeah. 260 00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:22,680 So I went to MIT because my mom told me before she died that, you know, I'm not to become 261 00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:24,680 a musician. 262 00:18:24,680 --> 00:18:28,640 Frankly, I'm back to music. 263 00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:29,640 So I applied to MIT. 264 00:18:29,640 --> 00:18:32,840 I didn't even apply to any kind of conservatory. 265 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:36,440 So I knew that I was going to become an engineer because my mom told me I was going to become 266 00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:37,440 an engineer. 267 00:18:37,440 --> 00:18:38,440 Okay. 268 00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:39,920 That's what my dad was also, actually. 269 00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:41,440 My dad also was an engineer. 270 00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:44,840 And I applied to MIT, but I love piano a lot. 271 00:18:44,840 --> 00:18:50,440 So I continued playing the piano, had a private lessons with David DuVaux. 272 00:18:50,440 --> 00:18:51,440 Really? 273 00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:52,440 Wow. 274 00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:53,440 Yes. 275 00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:59,040 And so MIT has a musical department or? 276 00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:00,040 It's actually pretty good. 277 00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:03,520 I mean, the music department, the professors are amazing. 278 00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:07,840 It's very small, of course, as you can imagine, but the quality is amazing. 279 00:19:07,840 --> 00:19:15,080 Yeah, I continue to perform and continue to improve on piano. 280 00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:17,840 And you got to perform with Mr. Yo-Yo Ma. 281 00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:20,720 Tell me a little bit of the experience. 282 00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:27,520 So as you may know, John Harbison is a composer, and he's a professor at MIT. 283 00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:35,440 So at the time, yeah, he was coaching my chamber music group, and he had written a, he was 284 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:40,960 commissioned to write a piece for Yo-Yo Ma to perform with the Boston Symphony, I believe. 285 00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:44,480 So John Harbison wanted to make opportunities for his students. 286 00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:49,520 So he created this opportunity for us to be the accompanying pianist. 287 00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:53,880 So that was an amazing experience for us. 288 00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:59,320 And your career is in a semiconductor industry. 289 00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:05,280 And I first thought it was a musical terminology conductor, but it wasn't. 290 00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:11,400 And you were working in that industry for like two decades or something after graduating. 291 00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:14,400 So what is semiconductor industry? 292 00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:19,200 So it just refers to the material that's used to make the computer chips. 293 00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:25,280 So every cell phone, every computer has these little chips in there, which is like the brains 294 00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:28,280 of the computer or phone. 295 00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:33,880 So it's like, you know, I worked on all the way from just looking at how long that chip 296 00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:40,760 is going to last to helping to be part of the team to design the new chips. 297 00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:42,680 So I did all kinds of work in there. 298 00:20:42,680 --> 00:20:48,480 Yeah, I'm really thankful for all the opportunities that I had when I was in semiconductors. 299 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:55,840 I was sure I developed a lot of the skills that I needed to start pieces of this. 300 00:20:55,840 --> 00:20:58,720 Because as I said, I was in many different roles. 301 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:01,320 I manage people, I manage projects. 302 00:21:01,320 --> 00:21:05,280 I was in the strategy organizations. 303 00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:11,040 So I understood how to build business cases and, you know, how to do projections and all 304 00:21:11,040 --> 00:21:14,240 those things that you need to run your own organization. 305 00:21:14,240 --> 00:21:17,280 What do you think about your musical career? 306 00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:25,200 Did it help to be a good engineer or a good student at MIT and eventually to be the founder 307 00:21:25,200 --> 00:21:26,200 of organization? 308 00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:31,000 Let me tell you a little bit more about my musical career. 309 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:33,320 And I, you know, I just kind of played music. 310 00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:36,600 I never thought about what it meant for many, many years, right? 311 00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:41,000 And actually in 2001, I stopped playing the piano. 312 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:43,720 So 2001, my son was born. 313 00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:48,800 And I thought, oh, I got to focus on my career and raising my son. 314 00:21:48,800 --> 00:21:49,800 So something has to give. 315 00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:52,880 So I gave up piano, I lately stopped playing it. 316 00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:56,600 I wasn't playing chamber music, wasn't doing anything with it. 317 00:21:56,600 --> 00:21:58,560 This went on for more than a decade. 318 00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:03,600 And then out of the blue, my piano teacher from MIT, you know, who consultizes quite 319 00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:10,480 a bit with the Boston area, he writes me a handwritten letter, which who does that anymore? 320 00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:14,520 But he did and he said, hey, listen, I've been invited to be a soloist with the Boston 321 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:15,520 Pops. 322 00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:21,200 And I thought it would be fun if the two of us played the Mozart two-piano concerto. 323 00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:27,080 He had no idea that has stopped playing piano because I didn't keep in touch with him, 324 00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:28,080 right? 325 00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:30,920 So I said, oh, yeah, of course. 326 00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:36,120 I took a bunch of time off work, actually, to just like brush up on piano again and then 327 00:22:36,120 --> 00:22:38,800 record, which was amazing. 328 00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:43,720 But what that made me realize was that, you know, playing the piano, of course, is good 329 00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:44,720 for your brain. 330 00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:46,600 It's good for your emotional development and everything. 331 00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:47,920 You know, everybody knows that. 332 00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:49,840 But it made me special. 333 00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:54,920 It gave me opportunities that I would never have otherwise, right? 334 00:22:54,920 --> 00:23:01,840 Because I love being an engineer, but, you know, I was just one of many engineers, right? 335 00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:06,880 But playing the piano gave me gave my life some a different dimension that I wouldn't 336 00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:09,240 have had if it wasn't music. 337 00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:16,600 So actually, it was that realization that made me stop and think, oh, I wonder if that's 338 00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:18,360 something I can do in Newark. 339 00:23:18,360 --> 00:23:23,240 So during my whole career in engineering, my family and I, we have been involved in 340 00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:28,880 Newark volunteering, you know, so we were involved in a youth program where my kids 341 00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:34,200 were, you know, participating in it, along with kids who lived in public housing in different 342 00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:38,200 places in Newark and they're just growing up alongside them. 343 00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:44,920 I could see that developmentally, my kids had an advantage because they had access to 344 00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:47,800 lots of extracurriculars, right? 345 00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:53,480 That kids in Newark at the time, because there was no music or any kind of art in the school 346 00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:56,920 at the time, had no access to. 347 00:23:56,920 --> 00:23:59,960 But for many years, I didn't know what to do about it because I could see, you know, 348 00:23:59,960 --> 00:24:06,240 lots of really dedicated teachers doing what the best already, which is great. 349 00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:08,360 And I wasn't trained as a teacher. 350 00:24:08,360 --> 00:24:14,000 But when this happened with the Boston Pops, I realized I could give them maybe some music, 351 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:15,000 right? 352 00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:18,680 Music lessons, which could possibly open up new doors for them, who knows what's going 353 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:20,120 to happen, right? 354 00:24:20,120 --> 00:24:27,440 So that's kind of the very long-winded way of answering, you know, how to starting, 355 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:28,880 you know, keys to success, right? 356 00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:32,320 And what music had meant to me all these years. 357 00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:37,640 Music has always given me opportunities and I didn't appreciate it until I was almost 358 00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:39,640 50 years old. 359 00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:46,920 So you moved to Newark with your family and then started doing community work, maybe through 360 00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:51,760 local organization or maybe church or something like that. 361 00:24:51,760 --> 00:25:00,680 And what did you see that maybe your children had or you had, but those that the children 362 00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:02,880 of that community didn't have? 363 00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:06,720 To be more precise, I live in a suburb of Newark. 364 00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:10,560 So it's called New Providence is about five to 10 miles away. 365 00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:11,560 It's very close. 366 00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:14,400 But New Jersey is somewhat segregated. 367 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:20,200 So in our community, the public schools have excellent music programs. 368 00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:21,320 Excellent. 369 00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:28,840 My son actually never took private lessons, but you know, had an amazing music training 370 00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:33,440 and my two daughters had access to this great school nearby, Wharton Arts, you know, they 371 00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:34,440 took panel lessons there. 372 00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:37,040 So I'll tell you what I saw, right? 373 00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:41,160 So I got involved in Newark throughout church. 374 00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:43,560 We decided to attend church in Newark. 375 00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:48,520 And the kids I was working with, I started working with them in kindergarten. 376 00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:54,560 And what was interesting for me anyway, even though I grew up in New York, I didn't really 377 00:25:54,560 --> 00:26:01,360 see outside of my own bubble much, you know, so I came to Newark with some preconceived 378 00:26:01,360 --> 00:26:05,040 notions we could not correct as it turns out. 379 00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:13,000 So when I started working with kids in kindergarten, I found myself being surprised to learn that 380 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:14,000 all kids are the same. 381 00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:20,120 Which kind of shows you like just prejudice or high part, you know, why should I be surprised? 382 00:26:20,120 --> 00:26:22,000 That should be just true, right? 383 00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:29,400 You know, they were equally capable in doing the things at the kindergarten level, right? 384 00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:34,200 Whether it's puzzles or learning the ABCs or whatever it is at the kindergarten level, 385 00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:35,200 right? 386 00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:37,520 And they were all eager to please, eager to learn. 387 00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:44,040 But actually by first grade, I started seeing differences in reading a novel and you know, 388 00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:46,560 say mental math, you know, things like that, right? 389 00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:50,200 That my kids were developing in. 390 00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:54,960 And then by third grade, they were practically in different grades already. 391 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:56,400 It started really fast. 392 00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:57,960 That was surprising to me. 393 00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:02,760 The only thing I could really point to that was like truly different between what my kids 394 00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:08,720 were given versus their friends were growing up in Newark with that. 395 00:27:08,720 --> 00:27:13,320 My kids had, you know, like the mommy and me type music programs, right? 396 00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:19,600 We signed them up for like art classes or, you know, things in the rec center, children 397 00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:26,040 in lower income households spent their time helping their family at a very young age, 398 00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:28,440 which is actually not a bad thing, right? 399 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:34,920 It actually creates a kind of person which sometimes is lacking in children growing up 400 00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:37,280 with more athletic households, right? 401 00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:38,280 Yes. 402 00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:42,680 A little bit more self-sufficient, a little bit more aware of their responsibilities, 403 00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:43,680 right? 404 00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:45,360 So, but that was differences. 405 00:27:45,360 --> 00:27:48,920 And unfortunately in our society, you know, what you get in your math and English score 406 00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:53,240 and your language arts scores mean a lot, right? 407 00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:54,240 Mean a lot. 408 00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:57,800 And nobody's measuring how mature you are as a person, right? 409 00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:02,880 Probably what inspired you to get into keys to success? 410 00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:06,600 Have you started teaching piano lessons? 411 00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:10,080 Actually I've always said that, oh, I will never teach piano. 412 00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:11,960 I'm a terrible teacher. 413 00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:12,960 I can't do that. 414 00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:14,800 I can't perform, but I can't teach. 415 00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:18,040 You know, you probably know when you play piano, everybody's asking you to teach their 416 00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:19,040 kids, right? 417 00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:22,480 And I'm like, no, no, no, I'm going to destroy your kids if I teach them. 418 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:28,400 But then, you know, like this thing happened with the Boston Pops, which made me think, 419 00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:34,720 oh, maybe I want to bring piano lessons to, is a new work. 420 00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:38,720 And then one of my, two of my good friends actually, they immediately spoke up and said, 421 00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:40,360 yeah, you could teach our kids. 422 00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:41,360 You can experiment. 423 00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:48,640 You can experiment with teaching with our kids, which I am eternally grateful for because 424 00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:53,080 as soon as I started teaching them, I realized I loved it. 425 00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:58,960 But so I was probably because of my background in the corporate world, I approached all of 426 00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:00,280 this with caution. 427 00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:05,520 I would say I did some market research, a lot of market research actually. 428 00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:12,560 I made appointments to meet with as many people from who are involved in music education 429 00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:14,960 in Newark as possible. 430 00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:22,280 I volunteered my time with music, music schools to learn what's happening on the ground. 431 00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:27,160 And through that, actually, I met some champions. 432 00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:31,040 So I would say one champion would be Marshal Kumohon. 433 00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:38,120 She is the vice president of New Jersey Symphony Education Department, and she continues to 434 00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:40,960 be a good friend to help keep the success. 435 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:46,960 So she was able to give me a lot of guidance, or she also told me something that, you know, 436 00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:51,360 it's actually very hard to get into the school system, which is what I wanted to do because 437 00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:53,600 that's where the kids were gathered, right? 438 00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:59,360 And that, you know, really the only way to do it was if the parents advocated. 439 00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:02,840 Well, I actually had some good friends, right? 440 00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:03,840 You know what? 441 00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:05,800 Because of all of those years I've been volunteering. 442 00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:13,880 So I went to a mom who lived in Pemington Court, public housing, and I said to her, you know, 443 00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:19,520 I would love to teach piano at the South Street School, which is a school near the public 444 00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:20,520 housing. 445 00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:25,720 And she immediately went and spoke with the principal the next day. 446 00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:27,720 She was actually at a hospital at the time. 447 00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:31,720 She called me and she said, hey, I got you, the principal said that she'll speak to you 448 00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:32,720 tomorrow. 449 00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:34,680 I went in and spoke with the principal. 450 00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:38,120 And literally that week I was in that teacher. 451 00:30:38,120 --> 00:30:43,560 Actually what opened the door at the very end was the community. 452 00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:48,440 It was, you know, it wasn't people with titles or anything like that. 453 00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:49,920 It was just a bomb. 454 00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:54,040 Taking on my behalf and opening that door, right? 455 00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:55,040 Right, right. 456 00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:57,360 Oh, it's a powerful thing. 457 00:30:57,360 --> 00:31:03,320 And then not only that group of people who helped you through the community, but also 458 00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:07,520 to be accepted in that community of new work, right? 459 00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:13,600 That's a different story because you don't want to go in there thinking, hey, I have this 460 00:31:13,600 --> 00:31:15,600 amazing thing for you. 461 00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:17,840 I don't think anybody wants to hear that. 462 00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:18,840 Nobody wants that. 463 00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:19,840 Yeah. 464 00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:21,760 Right, because nobody wants to be sympathized. 465 00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:25,880 Nobody wants to feel like, yes, how will you do this? 466 00:31:25,880 --> 00:31:30,120 For me, so that's actually, that's an excellent question. 467 00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:35,080 That's actually the key, the success of keys to success actually. 468 00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:41,480 It's the community engaged acceptance, I would say, acceptance, right? 469 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:44,960 And it's particularly striking because I'm Asian, right? 470 00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:50,360 I can, you can see, oh, that's one, that one does not belong in that picture. 471 00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:57,880 So the first community, you know, the way it got opened up to us took a long time, right? 472 00:31:57,880 --> 00:31:59,440 And I didn't do all that work. 473 00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:04,400 It was primarily the church, the members of the church who, you know, this took like, 474 00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:08,240 I would say 20 years for the relationship to build to the point where the mom would 475 00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:10,560 go and open the door for me at the school, right? 476 00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:13,520 Well, that was our first location. 477 00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:18,600 So then the question for me two years back was, how do I replicate that in other areas 478 00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:19,600 in Newark? 479 00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:22,000 Newark is largest, is like Newark City, right? 480 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:29,080 I realized actually what I need is a relationship with somebody who's already embedded in the 481 00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:30,080 community. 482 00:32:30,080 --> 00:32:38,800 So that person or group, usually a person, would then transfer their credibility to me. 483 00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:44,560 So for example, on the west side of Newark, the first location was in the east side. 484 00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:49,240 The west side of Newark, I have a partner, name is Marcia Heard, and we worked together 485 00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:51,760 over the pandemic. 486 00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:56,640 It really wasn't a long time, you know, and then we just saw that we saw life the same 487 00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:57,640 way, right? 488 00:32:57,640 --> 00:32:59,000 So it's very, very similar ways. 489 00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:00,000 We value the arts. 490 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:04,160 Now, the big difference is Marcia spent her entire life in Newark. 491 00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:05,160 She raised her kids there. 492 00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:13,680 You know, they are very successful young people, but she also knows the struggle of being in 493 00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:18,200 the Newark school system, right? 494 00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:27,280 So Marcia literally found a space for us to teach him, and she literally went down her 495 00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:33,920 street knocking on doors to tell parents about Kisa's success and enroll them in the piano 496 00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:34,920 program. 497 00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:37,960 It's not really very glamorous when you think about it. 498 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:38,960 It's very human, right? 499 00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:39,960 It's very human. 500 00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:45,800 It comes down to a person trusting another person, telling another person about it. 501 00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:47,800 That's a true grassroots. 502 00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:49,760 Yeah, it's truly grassroots. 503 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:50,760 Yeah. 504 00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:52,280 And I have other stories like that too. 505 00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:58,000 So, you know, Kisa's success, we've never advertised, and it's all about students telling 506 00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:02,800 their friends who then joined the program, who then convinced their parents to let them 507 00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:05,200 do all these different things with us. 508 00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:07,880 So you know, it's, you know, word of mouth. 509 00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:08,880 Wow. 510 00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:17,920 You know, I'm really not here to basically light certain group of people or economic 511 00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:18,920 background. 512 00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:21,240 That's not what I'm here for. 513 00:34:21,240 --> 00:34:29,280 What I'm here is about how you created this really meaningful two-way community, right? 514 00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:32,040 So I think, yeah, what you're doing is incredible. 515 00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:40,640 Now, and then also we always, lately, especially after 2020 with Mr. George Floyd's unfortunate 516 00:34:40,640 --> 00:34:45,280 death, and then that brought up a lot of conversation about inclusion. 517 00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:51,720 And even in classical music, people started to include more piano literature by composers 518 00:34:51,720 --> 00:34:54,920 of color, person of color. 519 00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:55,920 It's amazing. 520 00:34:55,920 --> 00:34:56,920 That's great. 521 00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:59,360 But we have to be very careful about inclusion. 522 00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:03,120 How you want to include, does that make sense? 523 00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:05,120 Yeah, completely, completely. 524 00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:13,240 Yeah, because when we think of making a program diverse, right, we think about, oh, bringing 525 00:35:13,240 --> 00:35:20,040 in, so in the case of an educational program, we think about just like bringing in people 526 00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:23,600 from different backgrounds and putting them together, right? 527 00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:28,800 But in my experience, I learned that there's actually a cost, a very high cost for doing 528 00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:29,800 that. 529 00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:34,840 And there's also a very high reward if you are willing to pay that cost. 530 00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:35,840 Okay. 531 00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:37,160 So what do I mean by the high cost? 532 00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:42,160 The cost is this, that you cannot come in contact with somebody who's so different than 533 00:35:42,160 --> 00:35:47,320 you without being willing to be changed yourself. 534 00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:52,320 Because when somebody is so different than you, they have something to teach you. 535 00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:59,160 And it's not something that we are all excited to learn to be taught by somebody else. 536 00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:01,360 But what is the reward, right? 537 00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:07,840 For me, what I found is that the only way I can explain this is that my life is richer. 538 00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:14,640 I'm not only living life through my own lived experience, but I have somebody else's lived 539 00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:18,120 experience to, let me just give you an example. 540 00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:20,600 So for example, right? 541 00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:24,920 Actually, so I just came back from visiting my aunt in Malaysia. 542 00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:27,880 She's getting old and her memory is fading. 543 00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:33,760 I recently cleaned up her house, put a lot of things away, which I loved. 544 00:36:33,760 --> 00:36:35,720 I loved seeing how clean it was. 545 00:36:35,720 --> 00:36:40,080 But what was even more meaningful was when I brought her into the house to look at things 546 00:36:40,080 --> 00:36:45,200 and to see her kind of go through things slowly and examine what I've done with it, right? 547 00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:49,720 It's living life through another person's eyes that makes you know that you're not 548 00:36:49,720 --> 00:36:52,400 alone in this world, right? 549 00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:56,280 And that, you know, there's one community together, right? 550 00:36:56,280 --> 00:37:02,880 So that is the richness from when I am able to see the world, right? 551 00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:05,000 Through Fasiya's eyes. 552 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:10,280 That is the richness that I have experienced in my own life. 553 00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:12,000 Inclusion, right? 554 00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:17,080 I would say it always has to start with yourself, especially when you're dealing with kids. 555 00:37:17,080 --> 00:37:22,200 Say we're just going to bring, you know, one of each kid and make them get along when 556 00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:27,680 on the staff, if we don't have that diversity, we are not modeling that acceptance and learning 557 00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:28,680 from one another. 558 00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:31,240 Then why are we doing that with the kids, right? 559 00:37:31,240 --> 00:37:32,240 Of course. 560 00:37:32,240 --> 00:37:39,360 On our staff, we're very, very intentional about having diversity in their staff. 561 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:42,880 Same thing with the board, on the board level, it's the same way. 562 00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:48,240 In fact, we skew more to historically underrepresented minorities because that's the 563 00:37:48,240 --> 00:37:50,920 community that we're working in. 564 00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:54,960 I've always wanted to talk about the true meaning of inclusion. 565 00:37:54,960 --> 00:38:00,960 It's really your willingness to feel what it's like to be in the other person's shoe. 566 00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:02,520 It's hard, actually. 567 00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:04,040 It's really hard to do. 568 00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:07,800 You think you're doing it, but you're not because you have to become vulnerable. 569 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:09,440 Wow, thank you. 570 00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:13,280 You mentioned that there's no school building. 571 00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:16,800 But I saw the video clips of children playing keyboard. 572 00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:18,480 I don't know how many keyboards. 573 00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:22,120 I don't know how you do it, but how this happened. 574 00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:26,920 It seems like the piano lessons or group lessons take place every day. 575 00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:29,680 Yeah, every day, different locations. 576 00:38:29,680 --> 00:38:32,920 Do you bring them each time or the keyboards? 577 00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:35,240 So I'll tell you how we do this. 578 00:38:35,240 --> 00:38:38,960 We're supported primarily by individual donors, actually. 579 00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:44,520 So 80% of our income is from individuals and from small sums. 580 00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:45,520 Just to kind of... 581 00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:46,520 Like myself? 582 00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:47,520 Oh, yeah. 583 00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:50,120 For sure, like yourself. 584 00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:53,080 So I'll give you just some numbers. 585 00:38:53,080 --> 00:39:00,280 So we have about 400 donors by any given year will be like 250 donors, right? 586 00:39:00,280 --> 00:39:05,040 Only five of those donors donate more than $10,000 a year. 587 00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:08,120 Everybody else is donating as small as sums, right? 588 00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:10,560 So the average being like $100. 589 00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:15,760 We don't charge the parents and we don't have a requirement for donation or volunteer time 590 00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:19,480 either, but the parents voluntarily donate as well. 591 00:39:19,480 --> 00:39:22,240 We have donors that give $25. 592 00:39:22,240 --> 00:39:23,240 It's not... 593 00:39:23,240 --> 00:39:27,640 I always say, and I mean it from the bottom of my heart, it's not the number that matters 594 00:39:27,640 --> 00:39:31,800 because every donation says, I believe in you. 595 00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:33,640 That is actually what counts. 596 00:39:33,640 --> 00:39:40,240 So in terms of the instruments, interestingly, we haven't bought a single instrument. 597 00:39:40,240 --> 00:39:45,320 So because I live in New Providence, it's a relatively well-resourced neighborhood. 598 00:39:45,320 --> 00:39:49,800 So when I started, I just kind of put a word out and say, hey, we're doing piano program. 599 00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:52,240 You guys have any keyboards lying around? 600 00:39:52,240 --> 00:39:55,480 It just came pouring in. 601 00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:58,680 And even some of those 88 keys are donated. 602 00:39:58,680 --> 00:40:01,240 So that's the thing. 603 00:40:01,240 --> 00:40:05,640 Part of what we try to do in Keys to Success is bring communities together, right? 604 00:40:05,640 --> 00:40:10,440 So in one community, like New Providence, there's a keyboard that's sitting in the basement, 605 00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:16,200 unlocked, unused, but we give it to Keys to Success and it's played on every day. 606 00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:18,480 In terms of moving keyboards around. 607 00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:22,000 We do a combination of things right now. 608 00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:23,520 We teach online. 609 00:40:23,520 --> 00:40:25,240 We teach in person. 610 00:40:25,240 --> 00:40:32,080 We teach in relatively permanent spaces, like the church where you saw the concert. 611 00:40:32,080 --> 00:40:34,600 They gave us a storage space. 612 00:40:34,600 --> 00:40:41,400 There are other spaces that we have to bring the instruments in and set up every time. 613 00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:43,320 And in the summertime, we teach outdoors. 614 00:40:43,320 --> 00:40:45,400 We teach in gardens. 615 00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:51,200 And we have a portable battery source and we can teach in sidewalks anywhere, in backyards. 616 00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:54,880 And so that model, we're actually calling the piano bus model. 617 00:40:54,880 --> 00:40:59,600 Right now, there's no bus, but we're working towards this model where we're going to have 618 00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:05,200 a trailer attached to a minivan so that we can bring instruments everywhere. 619 00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:10,160 And even when the weather is bad, we can teach inside the trailer. 620 00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:11,160 So that's the model. 621 00:41:11,160 --> 00:41:12,160 We go to the students. 622 00:41:12,160 --> 00:41:14,880 We go to wherever they're at. 623 00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:15,880 Amazing. 624 00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:22,600 How can I and the piano parts listeners participate in your work? 625 00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:26,400 So first you said, a person like me, I can donate. 626 00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:28,200 Can I donate through your website? 627 00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:29,200 Yes, absolutely. 628 00:41:29,200 --> 00:41:30,200 It's keysnewwork.com. 629 00:41:30,200 --> 00:41:31,200 Okay. 630 00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:32,200 All right. 631 00:41:32,200 --> 00:41:35,880 I will list that in the description as well. 632 00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:37,640 What else can I do? 633 00:41:37,640 --> 00:41:40,840 We love visitors, especially musicians actually. 634 00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:45,400 We use volunteers all the time, but I understand your listeners are all over the place. 635 00:41:45,400 --> 00:41:50,760 There's one way that lots of people can participate, whether you're near or far, and that's through 636 00:41:50,760 --> 00:41:53,640 our practiceathon, which is held every spring. 637 00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:55,200 And that is our spring fundraiser. 638 00:41:55,200 --> 00:41:59,160 It kind of came out of the pandemic actually, because we're trying to think, what we're 639 00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:01,160 going to do for fundraising. 640 00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:04,560 And so the practiceathon, think of it as like a walkathon. 641 00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:06,880 So you practice. 642 00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:11,080 In this case, we send in a clip of you practicing or performing. 643 00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:16,320 I find a lot of classical musicians would rather send in a clip of them performing than 644 00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:17,320 practicing. 645 00:42:17,320 --> 00:42:18,320 And then you raise money. 646 00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:23,900 You tell your friends about it and you raise money for, in this case, we use the practice 647 00:42:23,900 --> 00:42:25,960 athon to raise money for our song camps. 648 00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:31,000 Any success story, any stories, a student's story from Keys to Success? 649 00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:38,640 I want to tell this story because it illustrates that just like for my life, success was not 650 00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:40,520 a straight line, right? 651 00:42:40,520 --> 00:42:45,560 I went from being on top of the world in Malaysia to kind of going through lots of depths. 652 00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:48,040 It's the same with our students. 653 00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:53,040 One child who started with us back in 2016, her name is Anya. 654 00:42:53,040 --> 00:42:59,160 Anya lives in Penitent Court, which is always so eager to play piano. 655 00:42:59,160 --> 00:43:01,680 We taught at one school when we first started. 656 00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:05,360 This was pre-COVID and when we could teach in schools. 657 00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:11,080 And Anya would sneak out of lunch to practice extra with us. 658 00:43:11,080 --> 00:43:14,120 And as a result, she got really good. 659 00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:18,400 But as we started working with Anya a little bit more, we realized that she actually couldn't 660 00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:19,400 read yet. 661 00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:21,360 She was in second grade, but she couldn't read. 662 00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:26,080 It also was puzzling because the piano, I could tell, she could read music. 663 00:43:26,080 --> 00:43:29,360 Obviously, she's very intelligent, right? 664 00:43:29,360 --> 00:43:32,840 So we weren't willing to accept that she couldn't read. 665 00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:38,480 So one of my volunteers went out, got some books, just children's books, regular children's 666 00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:39,480 books. 667 00:43:39,480 --> 00:43:43,720 And every day after she would practice, we would read with her, Lo and Be Ho. 668 00:43:43,720 --> 00:43:45,440 That year she learned her read. 669 00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:50,200 And that year also she made principles lists, right? 670 00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:51,200 She did great. 671 00:43:51,200 --> 00:43:52,200 She did great. 672 00:43:52,200 --> 00:43:57,560 But unfortunately, the policies of the school was working against her. 673 00:43:57,560 --> 00:44:02,440 So that year, unfortunately, she got transferred to another school. 674 00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:05,120 And remember, at that time, we were stuck in one school. 675 00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:10,040 So we couldn't follow her with her musical journey. 676 00:44:10,040 --> 00:44:11,760 After that, she got transferred to another another. 677 00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:14,480 By the time she was in sixth grade, she had been in four schools. 678 00:44:14,480 --> 00:44:18,240 And as you can imagine, that does not help with academic. 679 00:44:18,240 --> 00:44:24,040 For Anya, though, it turns out COVID was a blessing in disguise, because we were forced 680 00:44:24,040 --> 00:44:25,040 to go online. 681 00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:29,600 So just like everybody else, we were all afraid to teach online before the pandemic. 682 00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:32,160 And then we all figured out how to do it. 683 00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:35,160 So we figured out how to teach online. 684 00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:38,920 And then Anya came back on just like everybody else. 685 00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:42,080 But there was a gap already, right, in her education. 686 00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:48,640 So she came back and at that time, again, one great thing about Zoom is all teachers 687 00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:52,080 know is that you become so intimate with your whole family. 688 00:44:52,080 --> 00:44:55,800 Because everybody, you can see everybody in the background. 689 00:44:55,800 --> 00:44:56,800 Yes. 690 00:44:56,800 --> 00:44:57,800 Yes. 691 00:44:57,800 --> 00:45:04,640 So we got to know her godfather, who is this wonderfully committed man who made sure she 692 00:45:04,640 --> 00:45:11,920 came to lessons on time and even sometimes would buy her a dress if she needed it for 693 00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:13,560 a concert or whatever. 694 00:45:13,560 --> 00:45:17,520 So Zoom, we actually became closer with the pandemic and we've been able to work with 695 00:45:17,520 --> 00:45:18,840 Anya even more. 696 00:45:18,840 --> 00:45:23,440 So this weekend, Anya is going to be auditioning for Arts High. 697 00:45:23,440 --> 00:45:24,440 Oh my goodness. 698 00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:28,440 You're like my own child is auditioning. 699 00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:29,440 I bet. 700 00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:30,440 Yeah. 701 00:45:30,440 --> 00:45:31,440 So excited. 702 00:45:31,440 --> 00:45:32,440 So excited. 703 00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:36,400 And we're so proud, really. 704 00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:42,840 She's one of our first students and she's really the first ones that have started with 705 00:45:42,840 --> 00:45:45,800 us that are now getting into the high school age, right? 706 00:45:45,800 --> 00:45:50,200 So for us to be able to see her this far, we're very, very thankful. 707 00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:52,400 Everything that has happened along the journey. 708 00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:57,600 Look what happens with the seed that your mother planted in you and then despite of 709 00:45:57,600 --> 00:46:04,880 her fortunate death, but keep growing and how many lives you're changing. 710 00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:07,880 And also they are changing your life as well. 711 00:46:07,880 --> 00:46:09,480 Oh, this is wonderful. 712 00:46:09,480 --> 00:46:10,480 Amazing. 713 00:46:10,480 --> 00:46:14,680 So what's your vision for the future of keys to success? 714 00:46:14,680 --> 00:46:21,040 So one of the things that I dream of is that right now we are so unique. 715 00:46:21,040 --> 00:46:24,200 That's absolutely no competition for our services. 716 00:46:24,200 --> 00:46:29,480 That's why we don't need to advertise because the kids just keep coming in, right? 717 00:46:29,480 --> 00:46:34,800 I hope that by year 15, the stiff competition, because there's going to be lots of organizations 718 00:46:34,800 --> 00:46:39,680 going out there to where the students are living to serve them there, right? 719 00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:44,880 Not just with piano lessons, but with art lessons, dance lessons, any, all the art forms, 720 00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:45,880 right? 721 00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:51,520 So my dream is that there will be a lot of organizations that are doing what we're doing. 722 00:46:51,520 --> 00:46:54,960 I know you have the event coming up April 2nd. 723 00:46:54,960 --> 00:46:58,880 That's a Baroque orchestra of New Jersey is collaborating with you. 724 00:46:58,880 --> 00:47:01,480 So can you tell us a little bit? 725 00:47:01,480 --> 00:47:04,600 The Baroque Orchestra is led by Robert Butts. 726 00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:12,120 Really a great community orchestra and also a little crazy because they're not afraid 727 00:47:12,120 --> 00:47:13,880 of taking chances. 728 00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:19,040 So and that for that, I'm grateful because this was actually, I think back in 2019 when 729 00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:24,000 we first played on stage with the Baroque Orchestra, you know, kids were 80 bitty back 730 00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:25,000 then. 731 00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:30,840 And but Maestro Butts took a chance and said, yeah, let's perform together, you know? 732 00:47:30,840 --> 00:47:36,320 So I love collaborating with the Baroque Orchestra because it lets the students know that an 733 00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:40,760 audience who is willing to listen to a professional orchestra is willing to listen to them. 734 00:47:40,760 --> 00:47:43,160 That our students are worth listening to. 735 00:47:43,160 --> 00:47:49,760 It's going to be August 2nd, Sunday at the St. Elizabeth College. 736 00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:51,360 Is it August or April? 737 00:47:51,360 --> 00:47:52,360 Oh, April. 738 00:47:52,360 --> 00:47:53,360 No, it's okay. 739 00:47:53,360 --> 00:47:54,360 No, no, no. 740 00:47:54,360 --> 00:47:55,360 Great. 741 00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:56,360 Are you performing anytime soon? 742 00:47:56,360 --> 00:48:01,240 Well, my next planned performance is going to be in November. 743 00:48:01,240 --> 00:48:02,240 So long performance. 744 00:48:02,240 --> 00:48:06,880 I'll do something in November in the Medicine Arts area. 745 00:48:06,880 --> 00:48:08,960 They have something for Thanksgiving every year. 746 00:48:08,960 --> 00:48:10,600 Are you live streaming the concert? 747 00:48:10,600 --> 00:48:11,800 I'm sure that can be done. 748 00:48:11,800 --> 00:48:12,800 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 749 00:48:12,800 --> 00:48:16,400 That way, our audience can watch your live performance. 750 00:48:16,400 --> 00:48:17,920 So before we go, two things. 751 00:48:17,920 --> 00:48:23,360 So one is any advice for young musicians who are currently in college or starting out their 752 00:48:23,360 --> 00:48:25,200 career in music? 753 00:48:25,200 --> 00:48:30,840 I'm not sure if it's advice, but I would say I just want them to know they hold in their 754 00:48:30,840 --> 00:48:35,800 hands the power to change the world because as we all have said many, many times, music 755 00:48:35,800 --> 00:48:39,680 is truly the common language amongst us, right? 756 00:48:39,680 --> 00:48:45,560 And there's opportunity, especially with classical music to make that a reality. 757 00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:52,920 So how we can get involved with Keys to Success is just go to keysnewwork.com. 758 00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:56,320 Find out more information about the organization. 759 00:48:56,320 --> 00:49:00,680 So this has been a really heartwarming and inspirational conversation. 760 00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:04,200 Jihoon, and then I enjoyed so much. 761 00:49:04,200 --> 00:49:07,720 Now before we go, Jihoon, we have one more thing to do. 762 00:49:07,720 --> 00:49:11,440 It's called the rapid fire questions. 763 00:49:11,440 --> 00:49:15,920 So this is part of the show where I get to ask fun questions to each guest. 764 00:49:15,920 --> 00:49:21,320 However, as silly as these questions may sound, your answers will reveal who you truly are. 765 00:49:21,320 --> 00:49:22,320 So are you ready? 766 00:49:22,320 --> 00:49:23,320 Okay. 767 00:49:23,320 --> 00:49:29,680 Yeah, please answer them with the shortest responses as possible and no explanation needed. 768 00:49:29,680 --> 00:49:32,120 Alright, question one. 769 00:49:32,120 --> 00:49:33,640 What's your comfort food? 770 00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:36,120 Nasi loma, Malaysian food. 771 00:49:36,120 --> 00:49:37,120 Cats or dogs? 772 00:49:37,120 --> 00:49:38,640 Dogs, for sure. 773 00:49:38,640 --> 00:49:41,640 So what is your word or words to live by? 774 00:49:41,640 --> 00:49:42,920 God is good. 775 00:49:42,920 --> 00:49:46,800 What is the most important quality you look for in other people? 776 00:49:46,800 --> 00:49:48,120 Acceptance. 777 00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:51,640 Name three people who inspire you living or dead. 778 00:49:51,640 --> 00:49:52,640 My husband, Shane. 779 00:49:52,640 --> 00:49:55,640 Oh, I see I'm going to run on numbers. 780 00:49:55,640 --> 00:49:59,680 Wait, my kids. 781 00:49:59,680 --> 00:50:04,040 And my aunt, who I just visited in Malaysia. 782 00:50:04,040 --> 00:50:06,520 Then name one piece in your current playlist. 783 00:50:06,520 --> 00:50:10,440 What is that Howl's Moving Castle song called? 784 00:50:10,440 --> 00:50:12,280 I have no idea. 785 00:50:12,280 --> 00:50:16,760 I think it's just called Howl's Moving Castle. 786 00:50:16,760 --> 00:50:17,760 Okay. 787 00:50:17,760 --> 00:50:18,760 So last question. 788 00:50:18,760 --> 00:50:20,400 Fill in the blank. 789 00:50:20,400 --> 00:50:22,640 The next one is blank. 790 00:50:22,640 --> 00:50:23,640 Delicious. 791 00:50:23,640 --> 00:50:25,800 Thank you so much. 792 00:50:25,800 --> 00:50:28,560 So this concludes this episode of The Pianopolis. 793 00:50:28,560 --> 00:50:33,400 Thank you, Jihoon, for joining our show today and sharing your stories and insights and 794 00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:34,400 expertise. 795 00:50:34,400 --> 00:50:41,920 And you can find more information about Keys to Success through its website at www.keysnewwork.com. 796 00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:48,560 And we want to encourage the audience to check out the website and to see how you can get 797 00:50:48,560 --> 00:50:50,760 involved with the organization. 798 00:50:50,760 --> 00:50:53,400 And all the links are listed in the description. 799 00:50:53,400 --> 00:50:57,080 And thanks to our wonderful audience and fans for tuning in. 800 00:50:57,080 --> 00:51:01,680 If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate and review it on whatever podcasting platform 801 00:51:01,680 --> 00:51:02,680 you use. 802 00:51:02,680 --> 00:51:07,120 And if you are watching us on YouTube, remember to hit the thumbs up button and subscribe to 803 00:51:07,120 --> 00:51:08,120 our channel. 804 00:51:08,120 --> 00:51:11,080 You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. 805 00:51:11,080 --> 00:51:13,040 The links are in the description. 806 00:51:13,040 --> 00:51:17,520 If you are interested in being the guest or recommending someone to be on our show as 807 00:51:17,520 --> 00:51:22,920 a guest, or you'd like to sponsor, collaborate with us, shoot us an email at thepianopodnyc.com 808 00:51:22,920 --> 00:51:27,320 or send us a DM via social media. 809 00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:30,600 We will see you for the next episode of The Pianopolis. 810 00:51:30,600 --> 00:51:31,600 Thank you, Jihoon. 811 00:51:31,600 --> 00:51:33,100 And bye everyone. 812 00:51:33,100 --> 00:51:34,100 Thank you so much. 813 00:51:34,100 --> 00:51:35,100 Bye. 814 00:51:35,100 --> 00:51:36,100 Bye. 815 00:51:36,100 --> 00:51:37,100 Bye. 816 00:51:37,100 --> 00:51:46,960 Bye.