Thank you to Women Helping Youth for your wonderful energy, heart and support! We cannot wait to share Women Helping Youth’s Music Heals on Wheels with our wonderful young clients.

RAFFI’S CORNER

Dear Friends, 

Greetings from Children’s Music Fund! We are working tirelessly to build our organizational capacity to bring the healing power of music to even more children through music therapy and instrument donation. 

As you may know, we recently welcomed Cecily Lerner to the CMF team. Cecily joined us as Executive Director in a long-term, operational consulting capacity. We have also just welcomed four new Board Certified Music Therapists to our network of expert professionals, allowing us to serve all of the young clients who have qualified for service this year to date.

Our newly restructured Board of Directors now consists of seven highly qualified members with diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise. As President & Founder of CMF, I am pleased to work with an exceptional Board: Michael Babikian; Talin Babikian, Vice President; Jean Grasso; Mayer Nazarian, Treasurer; Nicole Sahagen; and Corey Weiss, Vice President.

In an effort to expand our professional partnerships and client referrals, CMF is in the process of forming and strengthening innovative partnerships with a number of local organizations. In addition, we will be hosting several outreach events at local hospitals. See News & Events for more details.

Of course, we cannot sustain this remarkable growth without your support! CMF will be hosting our third annual Healing Through Music event in September 2011. This exclusive event promises to bring together talented artists and enthusiastic supporters for an evening of great music, great people and great eats! We’ll be in touch with more details soon.

Children’s Music Fund welcomes your charitable contribution – your support at any time and any level is essential to maintaining our vital programs. We could undoubtedly use your help now! To give the gift of music to a child, please click here.    

Thank you for everything you do. Together we can achieve great things!

Warmest regards,

Raffi Tachdjian, MD, MPH
President & Founder

NEWS & EVENTS

LAUGH FACTORY: On Friday, January 7, 2011, Children’s Music Fund held a benefit at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood. The turnout for this incredible fundraising event left standing room only! More than 250 CMF patrons laughed their way through an evening featuring comedians Pedro Hernandez, Jamie Kaler, Suli McCullough, Patrick Ney, Johnny Sanchez and headliner Maz Jobrani. The event raised more than $13,000 in support of CMF programs. CMF has been invited back by Laugh Factory management for a second round – and that doesn’t happen often. Get ready to get your laugh-on in 2012! 

HOSPITAL OUTREACH: As part of a new outreach initiative, CMF hosted its first Hospital Outreach Event. “Let’s Jam!”  on June 1 at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach. Fifteen-year-old LAVA/Universal Republic Records recording artist Kaile Goh performed with her band  on closed circuit TV for the hospital’s pediatric patients. Following the performance, Vanya Green, MA, MT-BC, CMF’s Director of Music Therapy, facilitated two interactive and totally awesome jam sessions with artists, patients and their families. CMF and Miller Children’s made the news with this rockin’ event! A big thanks to Miller Children’s for welcoming us with open arms. To read more, click here.

COMING UP: Stay tuned for details about our third annual HealingThrough Music event to be held in September 2011.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: NICOLE SAHAGEN                      

Children’s Music Fund is pleased to welcome Nicole M. Sahagen, Esq. to our growing Board of Directors!

Nicole is an attorney in the Real Estate Practice Group of the prestigious Buchalter Nemer law firm, whose main office is in downtown Los Angeles.  She represents buyers, sellers, lenders, tenants, landlords and developers in all aspects of the acquisition, financing, leasing, development and disposition of commercial, industrial and medical‐use properties. Prior to joining Buchalter Nemer, Nicole was Lead Real Estate Attorney in the Legal Department of a national restaurant company.

Nicole has numerous professional and community affiliations. She was recently elected General Counsel on the 2011 Board of Directors for Commercial Real Estate Women ‐Los Angeles (CREW‐LA), and is the recipient of the 2011 CREW “Woman on the Rise” Award. Congratulations, Nicole! She serves as Vice Chair of the Steering Committee for the Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) Leasing and Development Section, and she is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers, the Urban Land Institute and the Armenian Bar Association, for which she has served on the Grants Committee. Nicole has also published several works and presents regularly in the field of commercial real estate. �

Earning her J.D. at Boston College Law School, Nicole was a Summer Associate in the Legal Department of Massachusetts Port Authority. She earned her B.A. magna cum laude with honors in Politics and Economics at New York University. Nicole was also a Charles Edison Scholar at the Engalitcheff Institute on Comparative Political and Economic Systems at Georgetown University.

If that’s not enough, Nicole enjoys live music at the Hollywood Bowl, meandering through our local art museums (her favorites are the Norton Simon and both Getty museums), traveling, hiking in Malibu Canyon, and spending time with family and friends.

Nicole became involved with CMF after being inspired by Founder Raffi Tachdjian’s “Passion for bringing joy to children’s lives through the gift of music — a universal language.” In her capacity as a Board member, Nicole hopes to “Promote the community’s awareness of CMF’s great mission and encourage its involvement in perpetuating that mission and ultimately helping to give many children a better quality of life.”

Welcome, Nicole!

As many of you are already aware, Children’s Music Fund (CMF) is growing and we’ve been searching for a leader to help take us to the next level. We are thrilled to welcome Cecily Lerner to the CMF team. On March 1, Cecily joined us as Executive Director in a long-term, operational consulting capacity. Working part-time, she will focus on organizational planning and development as it relates to fund development, communications, program and board development, as well as budget and administrative operations.

Cecily is a seasoned nonprofit professional. With 13 years of broad-range nonprofit management experience, she has developed valuable relationships with both nonprofit and corporate leaders and decision-makers. Cecily spent 8 years working as a senior fundraiser before starting her own nonprofit consulting business in 2009. She specializes in building capacity for small nonprofits.

Cecily has worked closely with nonprofit boards, lay leadership, senior management and staff in the areas of strategic planning, campaign development, special events, individual & institutional giving, program development, budget & administration, communications, corporate partnerships, and staff & board development.

Since beginning work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association in 2001, Cecily has been closely connected to the arts. She has extensive experience building capacity for arts education and music programs specifically. In addition to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cecily has worked with organizations including American Jewish University, American Youth Symphony, Antaeus Company and the Los Angeles Jewish Home.

Cecily received her Bachelor’s degree in Education from Washington University in St. Louis in 1992. She completed a graduate program in Education at Loyola Marymount University in 1993.  She participates in professional development activities on a regular basis and has been a featured speaker on nonprofit management and fundraising for the American Jewish University and the American Camping Association.

A Los Angeles native, Cecily enjoys spending time with family and friends. She lives in Encino with her husband, Adam, and “almost” 6 year old daughter, Ava.

Please join us in welcoming Cecily to our growing CMF family!

Cecily may be reached at 310-428-0589 or cecily@theCMF.org.

Dr. Raffi Tachdjian was quoted in an article published by the National Hemophilia Foundation on the therapeutic benefits of music therapy in managing symptoms of pain.  Vanya Green, MT-BC, director of music therapy at CMF, was also featured. 

Please click here to read the article.

Check out Tamar Kaprelian’s debut album Sinner Or A Saint available now on iTunes!

Sinner Or A Saint features “New Day” as heard on The Hills and ABC Family’s The Secret Life of an American Teenager.  It also features a title track written with OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder and Brent Kutzle.

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new site. Thank you for visiting.

UCLA pediatrician creates foundation and compact disc series to help bring healing music to pediatric patients. Click here to read the article.

Pediatrician creates foundation, CD series to bring healing music to pediatric patients. Click here to read the article.

Pediatric patients get musical instruments. Click here to read the article.

Mass. General resident finds music strikes a healing chord. Click here to read the article.