I moved to the United States from Myanmar when I was ten years old. This is a photo of the choir I sang with in Yangon. What I liked best about singing in the choir was the sound of the different voices combining into one similar sound, and working with the group makes me feel satisfied because you begin to make friendships with others by creating beautiful music together. Sometimes it can relieve stress and problems you have. My mother also sang. She sang at Kachin which is inside Myanmar. She began singing when she was six years old at the church. My connection to my mother’s singing is when I was young we always went to church and sang bible songs, which made me inspired to sing and from there I started to participate in a singing program, and then I started to join the choir. When I moved to the United States, I no longer was able to keep singing in a choir because school was too hard. I miss back in the day when I was in Myanmar because  I used to have fun singing with my friends and we would always go camping together in the summer to practice our vocal course, but now I have to leave everything behind and focus on my education. When I listen to music I listen to jazz, piano, gospel songs, and many other genres. I like this music because I cherish my memory of my childhood in Myanmar. Whenever I listen to this music, it brings back memories from how I started to be inspired by music and I think about having a lot of fun, and the journey I had which I can’t forget.

– Yingpaingwah Hanson

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant