This alumna uses music to help young people of underserved populations at home and abroad.
In July 2023 Renee Chiu Gastelum (BM ’23) looked into the faces of five teenage girls at the Good Shepherd Orphanage in Taiwan. These girls had been removed from their homes to protect them from abusive or otherwise dangerous situations. “Given their childhood, they’re understandably a little more reserved, a little more guarded,” Gastelum explains. She was there to lead a music camp with the help of three other teachers, going over the basics of choir, piano, and guitar. But Gastelum—who had served a mission in Taiwan, where her grandparents had once been refugees—knew she was also there to help the girls overcome their challenges.
Following 10 days of instruction, the camp ended with a concert where the girls triumphantly shared what they had learned. Seeing girls filled with confidence and greater self-worth made Gastelum eager to return.
That same summer she created a music program for Utah Valley Refugees, an organization that works to help refugees become self-reliant and adjust to their new homes. As with her Taiwan program, she drew on what she learned in a class focusing on community engagement through music, taught by BYU piano professor Jihea Hong-Park. Gastelum learned how to write grants, raise funds, and organize interactive concerts. For a class project, she created a hypothetical proposal. Then, aided by a grant from BYU’s Laycock Endowment for Creative Collaboration in the Arts, she turned it into reality.
Through her nonprofit—Renee Chiu Music—Gastelum has organized college students to share the gift of music via her programs in Taiwan and Utah Valley. “The goal of our programs is to help [students] to learn music so that they can build interpersonal relationships, so that they can build confidence,” she says.
Gastelum’s first experience with Utah Valley Refugees was an interactive concert she helped put on with other students from her community-engagement music class. Following the concert, she remembers thinking, “I could do this for the rest of my life and be totally happy.”
Gastelum loves seeing how learning music helps refugees, as with one Nigerian family. “Initially [the kids] were just crazy,” she says. Now they put their energy into practicing and have become some of her most diligent students. “One of the kids writes down his practice assignments on a sticky note, and then sticks it on the TV so he doesn’t forget to practice,” she says.
The refugees she teaches face many challenges in their new homes. “For the ones who don’t speak English yet, it’s hard. But they can riff on the guitar like nobody’s business,” Gastelum laughs. Learning music gives those struggling a sense of accomplishment. “It’s fun to see them grow in confidence and see that they can do what they set their minds to,” she says.
Last summer Gastelum completed her second trip to Taiwan, expanding to an additional location and teaching more students—now ranging between the ages of 6 and 15. She says the new dynamic presented fun and unique challenges.
As she pursues her master’s degree in organ performance, Gastelum remains focused on her goal to bring the blessings of music to even more children who would not otherwise have musical opportunities.
