Harmony Project

The Harmony Project is a testament to the transformative power of music, fostering artistic skills of students while simultaneously spreading joy to elders at senior care centers. The project is also part of the community service program, allowing students to earn hours while enjoying music.

“We’re all really passionate about music and performing. It’s really nice to see the people who live at the senior centers and [how] their faces light up,” said co- president Sarah Chen ’26.

The project is mainly student-operated, with orchestra director Robert Loughran being the advisor. The students reach out to the care centers and set times for their performances.

“[The club] is mainly led by myself, my co-leader Sarah Chen, and our officer Ash Nieman, though the club itself is supervised by the orchestra teacher ... we often invite other PHS musicians groups, such as acapella groups to perform as well,” said co-president Daniel Haiduc ’26.

Through the project, the students are able to make connections not only with each other but the people at the center.

“Last year, in the spring, we hosted Cat’s Meow as well as Cloud Nine, which the seniors at the senior center really enjoyed,” said Haiduc.

The project currently consists of 10 people, including a guitarist, singers, pianists, a violinist, a cellist, and flawtists.

“We are trying to incorporate some chamber music, which is where you play with people of different instruments and you play pieces together,” said Chen. “So if we were to do something like that, we would probably want to hear people’s musical levels, to be able to pair them together.”

The goal of the project is to share their passion for music and give back to their community in a fun and joyful way.

They meet each Friday to discuss their plans for the performance that takes place on Sunday. All students are encouraged to join, and anyone interested should contact Chen or Haiduc.

Music Mentoring

If you’ve ever seen a group of elementary schoolers with instruments filing into the PAC after school, they’re probably a part of the Music Mentoring program. This long- standing community service club connects fourth and fifth grade students from PPS elementary schools who are beginners at an instrument with high school mentors. Each mentor works with a small group of kids who all play the same instrument. A typical lesson is 40 to 45 minutes long and consists of each mentor instructing the kids, helping them with musical assignments from school, and, ideally, getting to work with each kid one on one.

“I like whenever you can actually help one of the kids and you notice a difference that you can tell comes from your teaching. It’s a really cool experience. You help someone and you know that,” said co- leader Julian Suozzo ’26.

Both Suozzo and co-leader Seigo Iwata ’26 joined Music Mentoring as elementary school students and became mentors themselves once they reached high school. The leaders agree that the program has stayed true to its original purpose.

“It’s been providing an opportunity to both students and also, sophomores and juniors at the high school,” said Iwata. “It gives high schoolers a teaching opportunity — learning how to coach kids, to deal with younger kids. And then the kids learn from older and more experienced people.”

This year, Iwata and Suozzo hope to expand the program by getting more high school mentors invovled. As more elementary schoolers have joined the program in recent years, finding enough qualified mentors has become an issue.

“There was one point where I was alone with, like, eight kids. It was terrible. I could not get to each one individually,” said Iwata.

Music Mentoring is open to all students who play an instrument and would like to help elementary schoolers develop their musical skills. Interested students should contact Joe Bongiovi, one of the band directors as well as the club’s staff advisor, or either Suozzo or Iwata.