Love in Music: Looking Ahead to Our 20th Anniversary
Gloria Lee, Co-Founder/Executive Director (June 2026)
_________________________________________________________________
On May 30, Love in Music successfully concluded its 2026 Annual Concert, celebrating the 19th anniversary of our organization.
Every year, the weeks leading up to our Annual Concert turn my days and nights upside down. As I grow older, I am reminded more and more that living with the energy of youth is not always easy. Yet on concert day, when I see the bright faces of our volunteers, children, and families gathered together, the exhaustion somehow fades. In its place comes a deep sense of gratitude for having made it through another year together.
Love in Music began in 2007, the year Los Angeles marked the 15th anniversary of the 1992 civil unrest. Reflecting on the wounds left by racial and cultural divisions, we began with a simple hope: to build a small bridge connecting diverse communities through music.
That late spring, one violinist and two high school students traveled to a Black community in South Los Angeles to teach violin to ten children. For a Saturday lesson lasting only an hour and a half, our volunteers often spent three to four hours on the road.
That was our small and humble beginning. One step at a time, those Saturday journeys have continued for 19 years.
Providing instruments at no cost and bringing musically trained high school and college students together with young children every Saturday may sound simple, but sustaining such a program year after year is anything but easy. High school students, already navigating some of the busiest years of their lives, give up weekend mornings and personal time to show up consistently for their students. And behind many of them are parents who encourage them, provide transportation, and quietly make their service possible.
That is why I have often said that our volunteer music instructors are the great engine and the heart of Love in Music.
I watch them remember their own early days of learning an instrument as they patiently teach a child how to read the first notes on a staff. They wait through uncertain sounds, demonstrate a passage themselves, and encourage their students not to give up. Whenever I see those moments, I am reminded why it has been so difficult for me to ever walk away from this work.
Those small acts of dedication have accumulated over the years. Today, approximately 100 high school and college volunteers across our three program sites continue to meet children from diverse communities through music each week.
But Love in Music could never have traveled this 19-year journey through the efforts of just one or two people.
It has been possible because of our Board members, who have served entirely as volunteers; professional musicians who have generously shared their artistry and expertise; partnering churches and community organizations that have provided safe and welcoming spaces for our weekly programs; parents who have supported our volunteers in countless ways behind the scenes; and, of course, the many children and families who have returned Saturday after Saturday with instruments in hand and a desire to learn.
That is also why our Annual Concert has never been simply a concert.
Families from all three program sites come together and share a meal. Young students watch the high school teachers they know from their weekly lessons take the stage as accomplished members of an ensemble or orchestra. Children who are still struggling to produce a clear sound concentrate on a short piece of music, determined not to miss a single note.
And from the audience, their parents applaud with extraordinary pride.
In those moments, music becomes more than a performance. It becomes a warm bridge connecting person to person, culture to culture, and one generation to the next.
Early last year, we experienced another difficult moment when the website that had preserved years of Love in Music’s history disappeared because of a management issue and could not be restored. But we started again. Over the following months, we searched for old materials one by one and rebuilt our website. Now, piece by piece, the scattered history of Love in Music is finding its way home again.
Visit the Love in Music website
While preparing for this year’s 19th Anniversary Concert, I found myself going through photographs and videos dating all the way back to 2007.
Some are imperfect and faded. In them are much younger volunteers and little children standing with instruments that sometimes seem almost as big as they are. Following those images year by year reminded me again that these 19 years were built upon the time, sacrifice, kindness, and love of so many people.
We gathered some of those memories into a 10-minute-and-40-second video, “Love in Music – 19 Years,” which we shared at this year’s Annual Concert and have now preserved on YouTube.
Watch “Love in Music – 19 Years”
After so many years and so many untold stories, I find it remarkable that next May, Love in Music will turn 20 years old.
We did not travel these years in a luxury car on a smooth and easy road. We walked them—one step at a time. There were moments when the road was exhausting, moments when I wanted to give up and simply walk away.
Yet looking back now, I realize that every one of those footsteps became part of the history of Love in Music.
And even at this moment, that small history continues—quietly, steadily, toward its twentieth year.
To every person who has walked some part of this 19-year journey with us, I offer my deepest gratitude.
Music connects! Service transforms! And love continues!