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The 6th annual Heart Strings Gala fundraiser raised $70,000 for Band of Angels and music education in Kansas City, on February 4.
The event brought together professional saxophone player Ryan Kilgore along with several music industry companies to raise funds to provide music instruments and music camp scholarships to kids in financial need. “Each year the industry just continues to open their heart to support these kids and music education. We are so proud to be able to help these kids in need find music through the generosity of others.” said Mike Meyer of Meyer Music, and chairman of Band of Angels. “This year’s event was the most successful to date raising $70,000 to support the mission of Band of Angels and music education.”
KHS, Conn-Selmer, DANSR, Amati, Gemeinhardt, D’Addario, and Yamaha were among those in attendance at the event. School music directors from the area were invited to attend compliments of these companies. Local Kansas City high school junior and Band of Angels scholarship recipient Destiny White-Dixon performed the song “Sir Duke” with Stevie Wonder saxophonist Ryan Kilgore at the event. At the end of her performance Destiny was presented with a new Bach Stradivarius silver trumpet to celebrate all of her passion for music and hard work.
Kilgore, a passionate advocate for music education also visited six local schools over two days as a clinician, and shared his music journey with over 200 students. He shared his “Passion, Purpose and Person” philosophy with the students encouraging them to always find their passion and follow their dreams.
Band of Angels was formed as a partnership between Kansas City’s Fox 4 TV and Meyer Music in 2010. The goal was to collect used music instruments and provide them to students in financial need free of charge. The program was expanded in recent years to help provide music camp scholarships for students. To date Band of Angels has provided over 1500 instruments to students and schools while also sending 107 students to summer music camps on full scholarship.
