After hearing her friend play the flute in her second grade class, senior Cindy Chang decided that she, too, wanted to play the flute. Ten years after enrolling for flute lessons, Chang has now become the secretary of Musicians Society, a club at MVHS that strives to hone student musicians’ abilities by encouraging them to perform at community centers and other venues.

“My first time playing the flute was in second grade,” Chang said. “My friend showed [the flute] in front of the class and inspired me to play it.”

However, when Chang moved to the United States from China in the middle of sophomore year, she had to find a new way to express her love for the instrument. In the United States, Chang and her family felt like the teachers in the United States were not as thorough or competent as the ones in China.

“After I moved here I didn’t have a lesson,” Chang said. “So I started to do volunteering at Lincoln.”

With Musicians Society, Chang volunteers every Friday after school at Lincoln Elementary School and teaches students there how to play the flute. In spite of the fact that she has quit taking lessons and competing with the flute, Chang’s parents still support her endeavors with the instrument.

“They encourage me to play [the flute] since I don’t have a lesson now,” Chang said.

One of Chang’s favorite things about the flute is how small it is. She can carry it anywhere, and it’s part of the reason why she plays the instrument. Moreover, though the flute is primarily known as an instrument for classical musicians, Chang prefers to play jazz music on her flute. In particular, one of Chang’s favorite songs is “Over the Rainbow Jazz”, a riff off of the famous song from Wizard of Oz