Osiel Dominguez, one of our students at Our Lady Queen of Angels School in Harlem, will be playing the piano at his eighth-grade graduation later this month – a skill he has picked up and been learning at home throughout the pandemic.

Osiel was set on making the most of his lockdown time, and with the help of one of his OLQA teachers, he was connected with Diego Barrera, a high schooler at Collegiate School who would mentor Osiel. The two would virtually meet weekly for piano lessons and formed an friendship over the music that brought them together.

“I’m a firm believer that music is a connector, so this is kind of the perfect example of that in a time when everybody needed it the most,” Diego remarked.

Watch Caitlin O’Kane’s full news segment and read the accompanying article here.