By Megan Roche
For Charlotte Holliday, music has never been simply about learning the right notes or winning a competition.
It has been a constant thread throughout her life, which eventually led her to create The Tacy Foundation, an organization that gives young musicians the opportunity to use their talents to bring joy and comfort to others.
Holliday’s connection to music began when she was a child. Her mother, a World War II veteran who served with Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, loved to sing and encouraged her daughter to accompany her.
Growing up as one of six children, Holliday’s family did not always have the money for music lessons.
After the family moved to Paris, Tennessee, Holliday met a piano teacher whom she says transformed her life. She spent two years learning classical music and developing the technical skills that would eventually take her to competitions and performances.
After moving to Lexington, Kentucky, Holliday studied with Nathaniel Patch, head of the piano department at the University of Kentucky. She would take two buses across town each Saturday to study with him, eventually learning some of the great piano masterpieces.
While Holliday enjoyed competing, she began questioning the idea that music had to be about winning.
She remembers judging competitions where one child would receive a prize while the other students left feeling as though their work had been for nothing.
“I couldn’t stand it,” Holliday says.
That experience helped shape her belief that music should be accessible to everyone and, more importantly, should be used to connect people.
That philosophy eventually became the foundation for The Tacy Foundation.
The idea began after one of Holliday’s close friends was diagnosed with cancer and treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Holliday wondered if her piano students could do something to help.
She came up with an idea: Have the students record themselves playing music and create CDs that could be given to cancer patients.
With the help of a parent who owned a recording studio, Holliday gathered her students for a weekend of recording. By the end, they had recorded 108 songs, enough to create four CDs.
The music ranged from simple pieces played by beginners to works by composers such as Beethoven and Chopin. The CDs were eventually distributed to patients at Johns Hopkins.
The response from the students was just as important as the response from the patients.
“They were so excited about what they were doing for people who were sick,” Holliday says.
From there, the project grew into something much larger.
Today, Tacy Foundation volunteers bring young musicians into hospitals and senior living communities throughout Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. The organization has programs at approximately 22 senior facilities and six hospitals.
At one hospital, the musicians are invited to perform every week in the atrium.
Holliday has seen firsthand how those performances can reach far beyond the people sitting in front of the musicians.
She recalled a recent performance when a family was gathered in a hospital lobby to say goodbye to a grandfather whose life support machines had been turned off.
Holliday told the young musicians what was happening. They responded by playing some of their most beautiful and supportive music.
In another instance, a student volunteer played viola for a young man recovering from surgery. The two ended up talking after the performance, finding an unexpected connection through music.
Those moments, Holliday says, are why the work matters.
“It doesn’t solve it, but it helps each individual find a way to move on and find a way to heal from that,” she says.
The foundation is entirely volunteer-driven. Holliday, the students and the parents who help with activities all give their time because they believe in the mission.
For Holliday, the greatest reward is watching young people discover that their talents can make a difference.
“I didn’t think of it,” she says of the idea that started it all. “My students taught me.”
As The Tacy Foundation continues to grow, Holliday hopes those students carry that lesson with them wherever life takes them: Everyone has something to give, and sometimes even a small gesture can make a difference in someone else’s life.
