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September 29, 2019 - March 19, 2020 - Transition

There was a downside to my grand plan. My job at LEAP was ending. I was massively in debt from the concert. And I was about to be broke. To (barely) sustain myself, I started working Postmates. (Tip your delivery drivers, people. They are not even making peanuts.)


Donations came in, but they went to pay for the concert.


Thank God for Miyeko, who picked up the cost of the reception as her donation for the year.


Christmas kinda sucked. My nephews didn't like the discount books I could hardly afford from Barnes and Noble.

I was too embarrassed to tell anyone.


I made a few gifts.


But this was worth it, right?


Until September 2021, we relied solely on friends and family donations. But this was still 2019.


Here was the one thing Postmates allowed me to do: make lots of calls while driving around. Lots of calls.


I knew that I wanted to figure out the next cohort, and there would be strategy involved in making something from nothing.


I did concentrate a lot on building up the cohort.


At the Pilgrimage with my mom, dad, uncle, and Kai to Wyoming, I met David Ono, local news anchor on ABC 7. He was very gracious and connected me with the Asian America Symphony Association. It turns out my aunt and all her friends in Palos Verdes raised money for them. The President, Alison Jamele, was kind enough to meet with me, and she pitched to program to her Board the next day. I started getting inquiry calls.


I'm one of those people who has this philosophy that no one agrees with me on: "Just dive in. It's going to work out."


I had the Board backing to call a new cohort together for start in mid-March. Didn't know how I was going to pay anyone for their time or for the studio, but we'd figure it out.


On March 7th, 2020, several of Miyeko's friends had reached out, and asked if some of the students could perform at the Los Angeles Central City Optimist Club's banquet. They would provide small scholarships to Jayleen and Luis. I went and played as well, and helped with a powerpoint. These were Miyeko's good friends who had attended our concert, and Miyeko was our most active Board member, so it was important to go above and beyond.



Luis, Jayleen, and Akira, dressed formally, stand together posing for a picture at the Optimist Club dinner.


There were rumblings about a virus, and that maybe we shouldn't shake hands. We all did anyway and laughed because -- what virus? There were about 250 people in the room. Fortunately, no one got sick that I know of.


I bring up the Optimist Club because later in the year, I was invited to meet their Board. Starting in 2021, they have become an annual supporter of Inception. Their donations helped sustain our ear training program and paid for several scholarship students' tuition.


Over the next two weeks. I solidified more students, and brought the cohort up to eight composers.


On March 20th, despite my lack of proper funding, we were set to start.


On March 19th, the country shut down.









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