Princeton Tunes Up for Philly

When my 5th-grader signed up to play in last night’s “Tune Up Philly” concert at the high school Performing Arts Center, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Certainly my own high school experience never transcended the level of amateur production.  And the original flyer didn’t say much about what “Tune Up Philly” was, other than it was a provider of music lessons in Philadelphia’s inner city schools.

So when Farshad Tahvildar-Zadeh and Julian Edgren modestly took their places at the two grand pianos on stage, they could have been any teenagers, dressed in men’s suits.

But when they launched into a Rachmaninoff Suite with the grace and lyricism of the award-winning pianists they are, I was astounded.  “Who are they?”  I wondered, and turned back to the program in my hand to take in their remarkable musical backgrounds.  Sixteen and seventeen years old, and playing with the assurance of musicians twice their age.  OMG, was my fleeting thought, have I not fostered my own children’s talents enough?

As stunning as their performance was, Farshad and Julian were nearly upstaged, in my mind, with what came next.  Not a performance, but a short video clip of a documentary made about the inspiration for this concert, “Tune Up Philly”, a music program for underprivileged kids, started less than a year ago and now training 80 inner city schoolchildren in classical music.

“Tune Up Philly” founder, 24-year-old musician Stanford Thompson, took the stage to tell the audience of his ambitious plans to take those children to perform onstage not only in Philadelphia, but Baltimore and beyond.  And they only started learning to play in September! 

It’s quite possible that the real star of the show was Ben Wulfman, the Princeton High School junior who pulled this event together.  (“With a lot of help from the others”, he hastened to add.) He played a French horn solo, and joined the piano prodigies after the intermission for an intricate Brahms chamber work.  But there was no master of ceremonies to give Ben proper credit for masterminding this inspiring evening of music.  “I wanted to do a recital, and then decided to turn it into a benefit for ‘Tune Up Philly’”, Ben explained after the show.  He knows Thompson because both are involved with the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra.

One final memorable moment to mention.  My daughter and other budding musicians from the elementary schools, along with the Princeton High School Orchestra and other “extras” – you could barely see the top of her head in a violin section comprised of nearly a hundred students – filled the performance center to present a rousing finale of three pieces led by Robert Loughran, the high school orchestra’s dynamic music director.  It was then I understood that everything Ben and his friends had done that evening could inspire not only me, but my child.  Priceless.

4/12 update - Ben reports the benefit concert raised $3,500 for Tune Up Philly.  And here is a photo of the performers and colleagues.  (from left to right: Ben Wulfman, Fahrshad Tahvildar-Zadeh, Julian Edgren, Robert Loughran, Stanford Thompson, Larissa Korkina (their piano teacher))

About the Author

Donna Liu

Founder, AllPrinceton

Donna Liu is a digital journalist who has lived in Princeton with her family since 2002.  She founded AllPrinceton in 2010 as an online hub for community news and information.  At Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, she built UChannel - an online archive of public affairs lectures in academia.  Before that she established and managed CNN International's Asia Production Center in Hong Kong.