22 The QUEE NS Courier • march 12, 2015 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com New orchestra wants to become the sound of Flushing Photo courtesy of Paul Joseph BY ERIC JANKIEWICZ [email protected]/@EricJankiewicz One conductor is about to add some pluck to the sound of Flushing with a new orchestra devoted to bringing classical music to the neighborhood. “We realized there’s no orchestra in the Flushing and Bayside area,” Dong-Hyun Kim said. The Flushing native is the music director of the Nova Philharmonic and last year several local musicians convinced him to put together an orchestra devoted to central Queens. “And we said to each other, it would be really great if we can become the official Flushing orchestra,” Kim said. “We want to make a good tradition of classical music in Flushing.” The group of 35 musicians, called the Queensboro Symphony Orchestra, has been practicing every Sunday for their debut performance on March 22 at Mary’s Nativity Church, located at 46-02 Parsons Blvd. Kim, 40, graduated from Queens College with a master’s degree in orchestra conducting, and after many years of teaching and directing musical performances, he has returned to the neighborhood to try to create an official orchestra for the area after feeling the borough needed more classical ensembles. “There’s not that many orchestras in Queens so this is a really great thing,” said Paul Joseph, the music director for the Mary’s Nativity. “Kim is a very vibrant, passionate individual. The quality he will be bringing is much better than you’d expect from a community orchestra.” Dong-hyun Kim, seen here conducting a Nova Philharmonic performance, is forming a new orchestra, the Flushing-based Queensboro Symphony Orchestra. United by English at Jackson Heights center BY ASHA MAHADEVAN [email protected]/@QueensCourier One recent morning at the South Asian Center in Jackson Heights, around half a dozen women sat in a classroom and joined Audrey Olsen in reciting, “First, I woke up late. Then, I didn’t have time for breakfast. Finally, I was late for work.” This was one exercise that Olsen, a volunteer English teacher at the center, uses to teach the class the basics of sentence sequences. The center, a branch of the Christian organization Urban Nations Outreach, offers free English classes to immigrants. Every semester, about 150 students enroll in the classes, said Camille Samuel, the director of the center. “They come from different backgrounds. Some are educated, some didn’t have the chance to go to school,” Samuel said. She rattles off a list of countries her students come from: India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, China, Pakistan, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Honduras, Costa Rica and Peru, to name a few. Many of these regions have long-standing conflicts with each other, such as India and Pakistan or China and Tibet. Yet in class, these issues don’t rear their heads. As Olsen explained, “All the women have the same problems: trying to give their kids a better life, learning a new language. There is so much common ground that all the differences fall away. Many times, a Pakistani student sits next to a Bangladeshi or Indian student. It doesn’t matter. They work in pairs with people they’d never speak to if they were in another country.” The students build friendships that go beyond the class hours. Shan Shiyandani, from Sri Lanka, went shopping with her Korean, Indian and Bangladeshi classmates. Ayesha Ali, from Bangladesh, is happy that she can now speak in English and is friends with her classmates from India, Pakistan and Tibet. It’s not just the women. Bob Tsui, 78, an immigrant Audrey Olsen teaches sentence sequences at the South Asian Center. from China, is in the advanced level class taught by George Vengal, from India. One of his classmates is from Tibet. “We are not political,” he said. “We are friends, classmates.” “I’ve had Pakistani students,” added Vengal, “and never had any problems. We are all the same. We learn from each other about their way of life, and to respect other cultures.” The class, which also consists of Kitchtat Tassanapanich from Thailand, even went out for Thai THE COURIER/ Photo by Asha Mahadevan food together. The only thing that seems to matter is that everyone is learning a language that makes it easier for them to navigate the society of a foreign country. “The aim is to not just speak English, but enjoy life here,” Olsen said. The differences, Tsui noted, are just government politics. As Tassanapanich put it, “Four years ago, I joined the beginner’s class. When I visited the doctor, I couldn’t explain my problem. I needed a translator. Now, I can talk to everybody in every situation.”
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