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| May 17, 2025 |
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General News: Goodwill and Talent Inspire Concert Series
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| Pianist Yalin Chi created the Music at Ridgecrest series. |
December 16, 2010
A pianist’s generous donation of her piano to a church in New Windsor has sparked a series of concerts that are being offered to the community as a way of keeping her goodwill alive.
Yalin Chi is a classical pianist who left China as a teenager to study at Julliard and Yale. Three years ago she joined the USMA concert band at West Point and that’s where she met Eun Ha Chung, the organist at the post chapel. Eun Ha Chung, a native of Korea, was married to a career Army officer and when he was re-stationed to California, Chung donated her piano to the Ridgecrest Baptist Church in New Windsor to replace its tiny upright.
“I am a pianist and I have a piano and I know how much generosity and courage it takes to give away a piano,” Yalin Chi said in an interview this week. “The church didn’t have a concert series so I thought ‘why not extend her goodwill and actually use her piano in performance at the church?’”
Chi invited musicians she knew from Julliard and her idea for a concert series took off. They thought it would be a great idea to create a classical chamber music series under her direction and joined in rehearsals that often last several hours. The series started in October with a concert of Beethoven violin sonatas. The November concert featured a piano duo called Two Ponytails.
This month’s concert, to be held on Saturday, December 18 at 7 pm, features Wayne Lee, violin, Beth Wenstrom, violin, Ari Isaacman-Beck, viola, Gwen Krosnick, cello, and Yalin Chi, piano. Admission is free but donations are appreciated. Chi says that money they have collected so far have been used to tune the piano and to print programs for the concerts.
Yalin Chi has three concerts scheduled for the spring and she would like to extend a music program into the community. She talked about offering performances and classes in schools and at senior citizens homes. It’s her first time organizing performances, but she is determined to make them a success. It’s the same determination she had as a teenager, coming alone to America, where she became a U.S. citizen, then went through Army boot camp to become a staff sergeant and a member of the USMA concert band.
“It all came together that I have to do this and if I didn’t, it would be wrong,” Chi said.
You can learn more about the Music at Ridgecrest series and the artists at www.musicatridgecrest.org.
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