My name is Joe Hyink, and I am greatly privileged (and a bit daunted!) to be raising money for Micah and Hope once again. Like last summer, they will both be participating in music festivals in which Micah will be advancing his studies on the violin, and Hope on the viola. They will also be provided with opportunities to develop friendships with other musicians of like mind as well as to perform amazing music with their friends.

Micah will be returning to the 4-week Masterworks Festival in Spartanburg, SC. He deeply enjoyed his time there last year and grew both spiritually and musically. Throughout the school year, both He and Hope have kept in touch with a good number of the friends the made last summer. Hope too will be participating in this festival for its first two weeks.

Additionally, Hope has the immense privilege of being accepted into the prestigious Menlo Chamber Music Festival near San Jose, CA, after two tough rounds of auditions. These will be three weeks of intensive training, practicing, and performing with some of the best young strings musicians in the country. Hope's teacher, who is the principal violist of the Saint Louis Symphony, highly recommended this festival as one of the most beneficial available for young musicians.

Unlike last year, we have had more lead time in our plans for the summer, and fortunately, both Micah and Hope have saved up a lot of money for these events. But all the travel and tuition costs are considerable, and we would be greatly honored if some of our friends, who have enjoyed their music in the past, would like to help ease some of the financial burden.

I would like to share some of their work of this past year. What follows are links to the recitals they gave at the end of last school year.