Mari Hwang, Louis Yungling, and Shinichiro Inaji are three friends who met in NYC. Louis and Mari are pianists and piano teachers, and Shinichiro is a pianist, massage therapist, and graphic designer.
We launched our first concert on May 1, 2020 to give opportunities for music sharing, meditating and conversation during the pandemic.
Since then COMPASS has hosted 50 live, online concerts with 60+ professional and amateur solo and ensemble musicians and audiences from 4 continents.
We are a community of kind people who provide a warm and inviting space for all people to come together for the joy of making and listening to live music.
We hope you will join this friendly community and bring your family and friends along to enjoy our many beautiful and heart-warming performances.
COMPASS is a unique concert experience! We begin with a shared contemplative exercise I created called the "Generous Heart Exercise." We use this moment of reflection to quiet the mind and prepare ourselves to give and receive the musical gifts of the evening.
Meditation, mindfulness and awareness exercises are an integral part of my teaching and practice. Musicians benefit greatly from these practices by being able to fine tune their focus and get more out of their practice as well as increase their responsiveness to sound and be more present and confident in performance.
COMPASS extends these powerful practices to our audiences and together we expand our receptivity to the music we make and receive. A COMPASS concert, therefore, is a co-created, community event where we all feel and appreciate our unique and valuable contribution.
Just as the ancient instrument shows us the way, COMPASS Concerts guide us inward so we may know and appreciate ourselves more deeply.
COMPASS in the News
enjoy this video of COMPASS as featured on local news station KGW in Portland, Oregon in 2021