About

Community of Note strives to create space for individual healing and wholeness, provide opportunities for expression and joy, affirm humanity and dignity, and to create authentic community through music for people who are experiencing homelessness. From 2018-2024, these opportunities happened primarily through performances and classes at shelters in Baton Rouge, LA. In 2024, Community of Note was reestablished in Kansas City, Missouri, where it provides programming today.
"Music is the universal language of [human]kind."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

​A brass ensemble comprised of freelance brass players, LSU professors, and LSU students plays a sing-along concert each Christmas. Enjoy Hayato Tanaka's arrangement of Frosty the Snowman.
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​Community of Note was founded and is led by Jena Vangjel. Vangjel is a freelance trumpet player and educator in the Kansas City, MO area. She is an adjunct professor at Missouri Western State University where she teaches Music Entrepreneurship and Music Business and plays with the Faculty Brass Quintet, and is a teaching artist for Harmony Project KC. She is the principal trumpet of the Northland Symphony and plays with the Fountain City Brass Band. Previously, she was Adjunct Professor of Trumpet at Louisiana State University. She has performed with orchestras across the country, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Tucson Symphony, and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. Vangjel is fiercely passionate about using music to create community. She got her start in this work as a musician and administrator with Street Symphony in Los Angeles, CA. In the summer of 2018, Vangjel participated in a series of recitals in Japan, performing for still-displaced victims of the devastating 2011 tsunami. In 2019, Vangjel was part of a grant project in conjunction with the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge where she worked extensively with elderly citizens using music and creative dramatics to foster health, openness, and quality of life. She holds a Master of Music degree in Trumpet Performance from The Colburn School in Los Angeles, CA, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory.