The Ensemble · Leadership
Music & Light is led by a small team of high-school and college musicians who keep the calendar full, the ensemble rehearsed, and the promise to show up.
Leadership
Founder, President
David Durham, a senior at Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill, serves as president of Music & Light. He sets the direction of the organization, leads the team, and holds the standard that every room we walk into deserves a real concert.
Founder, Vice President
Samuel Kim, a senior at Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill, co-founded Music & Light after performing at his first retirement community in the summer of 2024. As vice president, he supports day-to-day operations and keeps both the ensemble and its schedule of weekly visits running.
Founder, Director of Development
Noah Kim, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, co-founded Music & Light and leads its development, building partnerships with retirement communities, schools, and supporters, and shaping the long-term direction of the organization.
Director of Fundraising
Carter Yu, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, builds the donor relationships and instrument-access fundraising programs that fund every performance and gift.
The Ensemble
The leadership team plans and steers. The performances themselves belong to a wider circle of student musicians from Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill, friends from neighboring schools, and a small but growing group of college players who rotate in for weekends and holidays.
Some play jazz standards. Some play hymns by request. Some read sheet music; some sit down at the piano and play what the room asks for. None of them are paid. All of them keep coming back.
If you play something, anything at all, and want to be in the room with us, we want to hear from you.
How we work
Care facilities don't need surprise visits. They need a date on the calendar that holds. We commit to a cadence and we keep it.
Rehearsed sets. Real instruments. A program built for the room we're walking into. The people we serve deserve a concert, not a drop-in.
We are not here to perform at people. We are here with them, listening to what they ask for, naming pieces they love, staying past the last note.
A note from the team
We started in one room in the summer of 2024. Three students, two cellos, and a piano in a quiet common room. We're still showing up.