Pandemia String Quartet for the Hope Clinic

Our Goal: To support the accessible, culturally sensitive, and affordable care that Houston's HOPE Clinic  provides our city.

How? By sharing the message of hope and beautiful music written by 7-year old composer Apollo Premadasa. If you are moved by his music and his message, please donate! All money raised above the video production costs will be donated to the HOPE Clinic's Covid-19 Relief Fund and will help support their efforts to make Covid testing and vaccinations accessible to all Houstonians. 

What else can I do? Share the music video with anyone who needs the comfort of music during this time! The video is on YouTube and free for anyone to watch!

Official Music Video: https://youtu.be/L0BS4N0qU4I

The Story:

A few months ago, we got news that a young boy, Apollo Premadasa, age 6, had written a full length string quartet during the pandemic. He and his family live in London, and while on the initial lockdown in 2020 Apollo felt the need to express his feelings on the page through music, dedicating the resulting piece to all healthcare workers and heroes of the pandemic. Unfortunately, he did not have a chance to have the piece performed by a real string quartet due to the isolation we all have experienced, thus pushing him to send out emails with a computerized (midi) version of the work. The Carya String Quartet got ahold of the music, and, once the situation allowed, decided to record it for Apollo as a gift, but a second thought followed immediately: we needed more people to know about this!

 

The resulting music video, "Pandemia," features images of the front line health care workers, social events, and natural disasters of the past year taken by Houston-based photojournalist Reginald Mathalone paired with the music of the little Apollo Premadasa’s “Pandemia” recorded by the Carya String Quartet dedicated and sent out to the world as a thank you to all healthcare workers and heroes of the pandemic.

 

We echo Apollo's hope that this music can brighten the lives of everyone impacted by Covid-19. However, in addition, we are asking that you open your pockets to help some of Houston's own frontline health care. After recovering a portion of the cost of production, all of the money raised during this campaign will go directly to the HOPE Clinic's Covid Relief Fund.

"Pandemia" can be viewed here, as well as on our YouTube page and our website. We hope to distribute it to as many channels as possible so that the voice of a young boy in London can be heard all across the world.

 

Thank you for your support!

 

Sincerely,

 

The Carya String Quartet

 

Budget:

• Artistic Fees $960
• Photography Licensing : donated by Reggie Mathalone
• Sound and Video editing $240
• Goal of campaign to support HOPE Clinic: $5800

Total Campaign Goal: $7000

 

About Us

 

CARYA STRING QUARTET

Founded in the spring of 2018, the Carya String Quartet is a Houston-based ensemble dedicated to performing string quartet repertoire new and old from around the world. Drawn together by Houston’s international and inclusive arts culture, the members- Eugeniu Cheremoush, Laura Cividino, Yuliya Kim, and Rainey Weber- hail from Moldova, Italy, Uzbekistan, and the United States, respectively. They bring their individual experiences as performers and teaching artists to create inclusive concerts and innovative educational programming. Outside of the Carya Quartet, Mr. Cheremoush, Ms. Cividino, Ms. Kim, and Ms. Weber can be seen performing with the Terra Nostra Ensemble, Da Camera, Mercury, Bach Society Houston, Austin Baroque, Texas New Music Ensemble, Music for the Forgotten Project, and the Houston New Arts Movement. Individual bios and full performance schedule can be found at www.caryaquartet.org.

 

APOLLO PREMADASA

Apollo is a seven years old passionate musician. He is a trombonist, cellist, timpanist and composer and studies at the Junior Guildhall School of Music (London). He plays the piano and orchestral percussion too and is training to become an orchestral conductor. He has recently had two pieces premiered at a professional concert and has won the first prize at the International Composition Competition Central Academy of Arts (Malta) as a composer.

He has been a prize winner in lots of competitions in the UK receiving the “Celia Yeo award for the most promising young player” and the Dixon Memorial Cup among many others. Internationally he has been a first prize winner at the Grand Prize Virtuoso (Bonn), New British Talent Young Music, France Music Competition, Golden Classic Music Awards, Starts of Tenerife, London Young Musician Competition, Crescendo International and second prize at American Protégé and at Music Grand Prix and the prize for the youngest player at the International Trombone Competition among others. He has been invited to perform as an award winner in Beethoven Haus in Bonn (Germany), Singapore, Malta, Italy, Canada and in Carnegie Hall (New York).

He also organizes charity concerts for Save the Children and Medicins Sans Frontieres in UK and Barcelona. Apollo’s soul belongs to music and he loves to share his passion with others with his playing and composing.

 

HOPE CLINIC

HOPE Clinic is a full-time Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), serving over 20,000 unique patients with over 100,000 patient visits per year. HOPE Clinic provides health care services to all people, regardless of the patient’s ability to pay. In particular, HOPE Clinic serves the uninsured, under-insured, those with limited English proficiency, and low-income patients. A unique characteristic of HOPE Clinic is its capacity to provide services in 30 different languages, including: Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean, Burmese, Arabic, and Spanish. HOPE Clinic’s mission is to provide quality healthcare without any prejudice to all people of Greater Houston in a culturally and linguistically competent manner. More information at www.hopechc.org.

REGGIE MATHALONE

https://www.reggiemathalone.com

Reggie is a photographer and journalist. He was born in London but is now based out of Houston. His work appears in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and People Magazine. Reggie is an AIGA chapter sponsor and a frequent contributor to the Italian press agency NurPhoto where he covers everything from the pandemic to space and politics. He is currently a photographer for Houston Press.

 

Pandemia