When junior Emily Moon and her chamber group lift their violin bows, signaling the end of the piece, they are met with a warm and enthusiastic applause from individuals at the Lamb Center homeless shelter. This concert is one of many events that Moon coordinates through Harmony With U—a non-profit organization she founded in 2023—to serve underprivileged communities through music.

Moon’s violin career began at seven years old, the same age as many of the children she now mentors through Harmony With U. Her journey with violin took a unique turn when she decided to combine her love for music with leadership and passion for community service.

“I really enjoy teaching kids, and I also love playing the violin, so I started a Christmas concert series at the Patrick Henry shelter just for fun,” Moon said. “I really enjoyed that experience: spreading our love during the holiday season by giving out Christmas gifts and sharing our love for music by playing Christmas carols for shelter families in our local community.”

Under the two pillars of the organization—community events and music lessons—Harmony With U organizes a vast range of initiatives such as concerts, instrument donation drives and free music lessons for shelter kids.

“The organization’s [priorities] give underprivileged children a chance to explore classical music and hone fine motor skills, providing stability for children who have endured a very hard childhood,” said junior James David, the marketing director of Harmony With U.

Harmony With U’s speciality lies in its deep ties to the McLean orchestra program. Through their frequent collaboration, McLean Orchestra Director Starlet Smith has witnessed the growth of Moon’s leadership skills.

“She’s tapping into a community that I don’t think is recognized through music,” Smith said. “There are all kinds of ways [underprivileged communities] might get helped, but she’s doing something that I think a lot of people don’t notice. I think it’s really cool that students can rent an instrument themselves or take lessons and realize that they can do music too. [Harmony With U] leaves no financial barrier for students to do something fun and that they can do their whole life.”

Through Harmony With U, many McLean orchestra students lended their support to the organization’s initiatives.

“We’ve had a few donation drives [at school,] and students have brought in old instruments, music method books or even violin rosin, which has been really helpful,” Smith said. “And of course, a few students have volunteered to teach instrument lessons through Harmony With U.”

In just three years since founding the non-profit, Moon has supported 867 shelter residents, served seven states, recruited 156 volunteers and formed 13 partnerships with other organizations.

“We only taught three kids consistently every week, and now we [are teaching] around a hundred kids at the Ferris Shelter and the Patrick Henry Shelter combined, and we teach them every Friday for an hour,” Moon said. “We’ve also served more than 10 shelters around our community through either a donation drive or [events like] Easter egg hunts.”

Managing a nonprofit at a young age comes with its challenges.

“Many shelters [often say] we are unable to serve them because our team [consists of] high schoolers under the age of 18 or 21,” Moon said. “What we’ve done to remediate this is collect funds through donations and fundraisers to buy gifts for the kids.”

While Harmony With U eventually branched out to cover a wide support base, mobilizing these communities in the initial stages proved a difficult task.

“It’s been hard getting all different schools together as a community to help,” Moon said. “We needed to reach out to other schools to help us [branch out], but we eventually made it. [So far,] we have partnered with around five other high schools and two middle schools, with [volunteers] from high schools all over Fairfax County.”

Moon’s resilience, leadership and commitment to guiding the organization forward made overcoming these challenges less daunting for the team.

“Emily is endlessly hardworking and dedicated to improving her students’ lives both through music and providing environments that allow students to express themselves,” David said.

Her strong leadership and character have also been recognized outside of Harmony With U.

“Yes, Emily is talented, but she is also a role model,” Smith said. “She comes into orchestra class with ideas to try, and she’s never afraid to stand up and make announcements. These small actions, like being willing to speak to the group as a whole, are really important. “

Moon hopes to expand the impact of Harmony with U, creating a more permanent solution that bridges the gap for underprivileged people to access music.

“[We hope to] collaborate with other nonprofit groups that have a similar mission to ours so that we can impact more people,” Moon said. “[But also] having an established music program in every shelter or homeless shelter would be my dream.”

Harmony With U’s ambitious goals have redefined what it means to use music as a form of connection.

“Music is a universal language where everyone—especially [in our diverse community] with many Spanish speakers—can understand and feel joy through it,” Moon said. “We may not know what’s going on with [the shelter kids] in their personal lives, but we know that when we come, we can help brighten their day by bringing music into their lives. I believe that everyone, every child, no matter what, deserves a chance to pursue music.”

This story was originally published on The Highlander on May 25, 2026.