Take Note

By Brendan Lai-Tong

Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra

In October we were the first to interview film director and cellist Ty Kim about his work with the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra (PACO) and their Kickstarter campaign. For those of you who don’t know, Kickstarter.com is a unique way for individuals with great ideas to raise funding for their projects. Kickstarter.com enables artists to reach a world-wide audience and many successful projects have gotten off of the ground through thisinnovative crowd-sourcing tool. The aim of Ty’s project was to raise seed funding to produce a short documentary film that showcases PACO and howchamber music teaches young people to play well with others in an orchestra and in life. You can read more about Ty Kim, PACO and their original campaign in our interview here.

We would like to congratulate PACO and Ty for reaching their Kickstarter goal of $10,000 for “Phase One” of their film project. Raising almost $11,000 in thirty days is certainly no small feat! The short film is beautifully directed and really captures the spirit of the orchestra, the individuals involved and how important music changes lives in a positive way even decades after graduating from the chamber group. For those who are not involved in music, this film really helps convey what it is like to be a part of something special like PACO and how playing well with others can help a team succeed.

Ty and the PACO are now preparing to raise funds for “Phase Two” of their project. This time around $40,000 is the goal. The funding will be used to create a full length documentary which will follow PACO on their tour in Italy. In addition, world renowned cellist Matt Haimovitz, who began as a young musician playing with PACO, has agreed to tour with the orchestra in Italy! Haimovitz  has performed with many world class ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony and Cleveland Symphony.

We hope that Ty and PACO are able to complete their Kickstarter campaign for the second phase of filming. Please take a moment to check out and support their Kickstarter campaign here and be sure to read our previous interview with Ty Kim for more insightful information!

Brendan Lai-Tong is the Assistant Marketing Manager at Sheet Music Plus and holds degrees in trombone performance from University of Miami and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.