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This winter, five teenagers have been spending some of their weekend evenings combining their love of playing music together with their desire to support a good cause.

The Palo Alto Busking Group, made up of local youth who met and play together through Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, performs classical music for passersby on downtown Mountain View’s Castro Street, collecting donations that go to benefit victims of California wildfires.

This past Saturday, Seiji Yang (Menlo School), Masako Yang (Castilleja School), Mia Baldonado (Palo Alto High School), Hitomi Inaba (Cupertino High School), and Kotomi Inaba (Cupertino High School) raised $397.23 to add to their previous busking-night earnings for a total $1,047.20, which they plan to donate to the Red Cross’ wildfire-relief fund.

“On average, we typically raise about $100-250 an hour, but this varies widely by location and time of day,” Yang told the Weekly.

The Palo Alto Busking Group first raised money for wildfire victims back in 2018. They hope to continue to raise both funds and awareness through the project.

“It is very humbling and inspiring to know that music can unite so many people to support those in need,” Yang said.

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4 Comments

  1. It’s good to see a group of buskers with a name, they are giving busking a good name; they are on their way to Carnegie Hall — practice practice practice. come to think of it, there is a palo altan not too much older than these five named Molly Tuttle who is literally playing Carnegie Hall this spring, on acoustic guitar — it would be great to get Molly — or the Palo Alto Busking Group – -to play ground zero for Palo Alto busking which is Lytton Plaza.
    I may have to sponsor a rival group of even younger and cuter Palo Alto area musicians called Palo Alto Busking Kings or Palo Alto Bus Queens

  2. This is so commendable for such a great cause. I had the pleasure to walk by and listen to their music. It was flawless. I ended up listening to them for over 30 minutes. They had such a wide repertoire of beautiful classical music. Bravo!

  3. In New Zealand there is an international congress of buskers once per year; I have a plan to create a busking event here called International Congress of Buskers of Palo Alto (ICOBOPA).
    I wrote to the executive office of that country — after seeing her on Colbert – -and they actually wrote me back with the email of the person in charge of the event there.
    The difference between my event idea and the World Music Festival here (Make Music Palo Alto — Fete De La Musique – Fathers Day, since 2009, I worked on it) is that I would have a talent budget and either seed the program or pay everyone the same amount. It’s not quite busking per se if you underwrite them but it is on the continuum from true buskers to civic concerts or soft ticket or hard ticket events.

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