Three years ago a group of students united together to create change through music. They formed a club called Music Above All. Today, that club has turned into a official non-profit organization that has a mission to use music to make a difference in the community.

“[Music Above All] is run by six people on a board now,” senior and president of Music Above All, Austin Zhang said. “We are membership based, and most of our volunteers are students from Plano schools. They’ll do things such as teach lessons. They’ll go down to West community centers and work with kids from impoverished families. There’s like 130 kids, and they’ll teach things like rhythms and soul fedge. Once in awhile they’ll go in and do performances.”

This summer Music Above All volunteer senior Tiffany Kang had a chance to go down to Wesley-Rankin Community Center in West Dallas and teach students about music.

“Wesley-Rankin Community Center is a center where a bunch of financially disadvantaged kids come,” Kang said. “We taught basic music skills to these kids. Many of them didn’t even know what [traditional] music was.”

Kang’s life has been heavily influenced by music since she was young child, and for her this is a way to help and make a difference in a child’s life the same way music made a difference in hers. Also, Music Above All was a platform for her to go out and to perform.

“It gave me more opportunities to perform around local areas, instead of me having to reach out by myself,” kang said. “I knew a lot of kids were not immersed in the musical culture. What I wanted to do was become a soloist and play for disadvantaged kids and people when I was older, and this was my way to help people through music.”

Music Above All Orchestra representative junior Abby Rex believes that this organization gives back to the community and is a way for people who are not familiar with traditional music to experience it.

“It really helps spread the knowledge of music throughout the area,” Rex said.“I think the best thing we do is help people and kids who may not know how much influence music can have in their life and help them understand what a great role it can play.”

One of Music Above All’s mission this year is their three phase plan, where they want their end result to be for a child to have the opportunity to learn music.

“Phase one is instrument donations, where we email all the music students we know and giving presentations at places to get instruments donated,” Zhang said. “Phase two is having an instrument fair down in Dallas, where we’ll have all the donated instruments and they can try them all they want and if they like it they can take it home with it. Then in phase three our  members will go have one on ones with the children who picked those instruments and teach them music and be a mentor for them.”

Getting involved in this organization is really easy. You can donate an instrument or become a member and get the opportunity to go out and make a difference.

“We have our own website, and people can always audition to join to become a member,” Kong said. “Sometimes we’ll bring in quartets and ensembles, and some people part of the ensemble aren’t Music Above All members. It’s like a chain effect. A lot of Music Above All  members work with non Music Above All  members but they’ll constantly perform.”

Ultimately, Music Above All’s goal is to give back to the community and to help those less fortunate through music.

“As a musician who plans on going into music and making my life about it, I know firsthand how much happiness and joy comes with it,” Zhang said. “I have seen how music makes a difference in my life and for me this organization is a way to make that difference in someone else’s life.”