Christmas Concert for TFRD’s 20th Anniversary

The Taiwan Foundation for Rare Disorders (TFRD) and Piyo Hu, a saxophone master, held a Christmas concert for the TFRD’s 20th anniversary at Howard Civil Service International House on the evening of December 22. The concert was the perfect end to the series of anniversary celebrations.

The TFRD also used this rare opportunity to praise volunteers who have devoted themselves to the foundation over the past 20 years as these volunteers have always been the most solid backing of the TFRD.

Hu has released nearly 400 albums in 45 years since his debut. He once suffered from facial palsy when preparing for a concert. At that time, he suddenly lost the ability to play, so he can deeply understand the difficulty of rare diseases.

The concert started off with piano and violin performances played by Cheng-Yun and Hung-Yu, two of the TFRD’s brilliant patients. Cheng-Yun is almost blind, but he actively engages in music creation despite the difficulty. He released his first album recently. As for Hung-Yu, he needs lots of time to rest due to his disease, but he practices violin very hard. Both performances followed by a big round of applause.

Hu and his Oriental Super Band put on a series of performances interspersed with touching songs sung by the TFRD’s Kids Music Class and Rare Daddy Chorus.

During the grand finale, the members of the Heavenly Melody Chorus in Northern Area and a dozen of wheelchair patients showed up on stage, while volunteers, VIP guests and all the other participants sang “Silent Night” and waved cell phone lights as they spent a very different Christmas.

Translator: Jazz Chen (Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome), Reviewer: Alex Chiang