Student-organized benefit concert to honor CA firefighters

On Dec. 12, a special online charity concert will be held to raise funds for the families of firefighters who lost their lives battling the deadly wildfires that have burned across California since August. The concert, organized by Nathan Liu, grade 9, will be broadcast on Facebook. 

“As we navigate these unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic and the continued wildfires in California, I just want to contribute my time to host an online music concert to pay tribute to those fallen heroes [and] also to raise funds to provide emotional and financial assistance to families of fallen firefighters,” Liu said. Last week, independent TV station KTSF featured Liu on a segment about the concert. 

The performers include veteran professional musicians, including Sandra Wright Chen, a highly regarded concert pianist and Steinway Artist; bassist Joshua Thurston-Milgrom of the department of music at Stanford University; and violinist Kei Obata. Student musicians Callie Yuan, Shayla He, Ella Yee, Jerry Li and Vardaan Ghai, all grade 9, also will be featured, and Liu also will perform. “The fact that a concert consisted of mostly my peers from Harker proves how talented our Eagle community is,” said Liu. “Due to the pandemic, we were not able to practice together or have an in-person concert, therefore, we heavily rely on remote communication technology to collaborate, such as emails, chat, Zoom and cloud document sharing to brainstorm about the concert.”

The concert is scheduled to go live on Saturday at 7 p.m., and Liu advised those who wish to attend to like the concert’s Facebook page and keep an eye out for a notification when the event is live.