New ‘Chords of Care’ youth organization plays music for Parksville seniors

Group has formed chapters around Island, B.C. and beyond

A new youth organization is using music to spread happiness around Vancouver Island and beyond.

The Nanaimo chapter of Chords of Care recently shared their musical talents with the residents of Stanford Seniors Village in Parksville.

“We hope to unite communities through music,” said Selina Ma, who founded the organization with a friend who lives in Toronto. “We just have so much creativity and we want to spread love using music because music is such a powerful thing.”

The 11 members gave a one and a half hour performance, and played a range of instruments that included piano, violin and two traditional Chinese instruments Ma described as a Chinese flute and a six string instrument a bit like a piano.

“It was so wonderful,” Ma said. “Stanford Seniors Village has a lot of seniors that like to sing, so when we were playing songs — like 50s, 60s hits, they were just singing along.”

The musicians also played an assortment of classical music and a few pop hits, she added.

Chords of Care has 70 members in total, spread across branches in Victoria, the Comox Valley and Campbell River, as well as the Mainland, the U.S. and the U.K.

The Nanaimo group that played for the Parksville seniors included: Emma Chen, Lily Chen, Abby Ge, Angel Ma, Everest Ma, Phoebe Ma, Selina Ma, Olivia Wang, Java Yang, Grace Zhao and Olivia Zhou.

Ma said the initiative will hopefully expand to performances at hospitals, as well as teaching young children to play the piano.

More events at seniors homes are planned in Nanaimo, she added, and Chords of Care is aiming to add more members, including in the Parksville area.

To sign up, visit the organization’s Instagram page.

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