For the past two years, a group of student musicians from Naperville has visited local retirement homes to perform songs and connect with senior residents.
Meet Aditya Rakshit and Ricky Kim, lifelong friends and seniors at Neuqua Valley High School. The pair founded Haven Music Group, a local nonprofit comprised of over 40 student musicians.
Most weekends, you can find a group of 10 Haven students at the Pearl of Naperville or Arbor Terrace of Naperville playing, “a huge variety of instruments… these kids come in from orchestra and band as well,” Rakshit said.
Reconnecting with seniors after the COVID-19 pandemic
Rakshit and Kim formed the group coming out of the pandemic as a way for the younger generation to reconnect with local seniors through music and other activities.
“Since COVID-time this whole place was shut down, so we could (now) help out with the community, and also use our piano skills for something better,” said Kim.
The students in Haven Music Group started off playing only classical pieces, but it didn’t take long for requests to start flowing in from residents.
“Jean and Judy… they’ve been here since we started,” said Rakshit. “And Jean, what she said to us was, ‘I’ll only come if you play something new,’ or like one of her requests.’ We started playing fun pieces for them. So I play like Take Me Home, Country Roads (by John Denver)… or like Piano Man by Billy Joel, that type of thing.”
Haven Music Group brings new piano to Naperville senior home
Before performing for the first time at the Arbor Terrace of Naperville in July, Rakshit and Kim ran into some “treble.”
“I think (the piano was) almost like 100 years old, it was so antique, some of the keys were falling off,” Rakshit said.
The two made it their mission to get the residents a new piano. After raising money through a GoFundMe and receiving a donation from Naperville’s Covenant Classical School, Arbor Terrace residents were gifted the piano in August.
“It was perfect for us because we have a piano to perform, and they have a better piano to listen to music,” said Rakshit.
Connecting with seniors on a deeper level
Haven’s connection with the residents has extended far beyond just music.
Earlier this year, a dog bite on his hand sidelined Rakshit from both high school tennis matches and playing with Haven for over six months. Coming to weekend sessions gave him a new mindset about his setback.
“I had to learn how to write again, I had to learn how to play piano again,” said Rakshit. “Going through that struggle and talk(ing) to them about this thing, that brought a whole new perspective about the whole thing that happened.”
Ricky has spent the majority of his life in Naperville with his parents, but, “The rest of my family grew up in Korea… so I’ve obviously had a distant relationship with my grandparents, not being able to talk to them as much. So coming here kind of just opened me to that road of having grandparents,” Kim said. “I see this place as like my second family.”
Rakshit and Kim both plan on attending college next year. They hope future generations of high school students can keep Haven Music Group alive for years to come.
“It’s like an outlet for (students) to perform, but it’s also like they do something good while they’re at it,” said Rakshit.
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