To fully understand the heart and mission of OC Music & Dance, we must appreciate the journey of our founder, Charlie Zhang. Charlie was one of 9 children and grew up in Shanghai, China.

When he was only two years old, his father was sent to prison for 20 years. “He was a businessman who was not fully cooperating with the Communist system,” explains Zhang. Charlie’s mother and older siblings kept multiple jobs to survive; they ate little and recycled one another’s clothes.

At seventeen, he reported to the rice paddies where he would work for the next seven years. While digging trenches, seeding soil, and eating grass to fill his empty stomach, young Charlie possessed a single treasure: his brother’s old clarinet. He taught himself a few Chinese songs – “the classical Western music you weren’t allowed to play,” he says.

His passion was music, and that offered an escape. He often referred to his clarinet as his best friend during the most challenging times of his life. Across the world, in Los Angeles, a small music academy on Wilshire Boulevard had offered him a scholarship. His uncle was already living in the U.S. and could pay for his airfare. Zhang remembers his mother’s face, damp with tears. But he got on the plane with his clarinet and about $20 in his pocket.

Music school, however, couldn’t last; he ran out of funds and needed to find a job. He worked as a busboy at a Chinese restaurant and as a gas station attendant at night. One day while working at the Chinese restaurant, he nearly cut his finger off while chopping chicken. With this accident and his financial struggles, he kissed his dreams of becoming a musician goodbye.

Meanwhile, Zhang and a partner saved up money to start Shanghai Charlie’s in San Juan Capistrano, a popular restaurant that would stay in his family for more than 30 years. But in 1989, realizing that most people wanted their Chinese food to go, he started Pick Up Stix and became a highly successful businessman.

Music remained a significant part of Charlie’s life. He was a considerable board member for the Pacific Symphony, where he met Doug Freeman, who also sat on the board. In 2016, Charlie decided that no child should have to give up their dreams due to their financial situation. He and his colleague Doug Freeman founded OC Music & Dance. In this premier nonprofit performing arts school, every child has the opportunity to experience high-quality performing arts education regardless of their family’s ability to pay.

As for that old clarinet? Zhang still has it. These days, it’s packed away, a treasured antique.