GREENSBORO, N.C. — Davis Cahill was awarded the first annual Teacher of the Year Award at the Lang Lang International Music Foundation Gala Wednesday night.
Cahill is a music teacher at Jefferson Elementary School in Greensboro.
Lang Lang and his wife Gina Alice hosted the Lang Lang International Music Foundation Gala (LLIMF) in New York City after a four year absence.
LLIMF strives to educate, inspire, and motivate the next generation of music lovers and performers since 2008.
Their unique programs encourage music performance at all levels as a means of social and emotional development for today's youth.
The LLIMF's first annual Teacher of the Year Award was presented at the Gala to Davis Cahill.
"I owe every bit of this to the foundation. Everything they've done is just unfathomable for the students that we have," Cahill said, during his acceptance speech. "We teach kids that come up to you, saying they're homeless or saying that they've been through the worst things in life, and they go into the piano room, and it's a solace for them."
The big news from the night was $1.3 million was raised from gala donors to fund foundation global education initiatives.
The foundation has successfully developed music education programs benefiting children across the world including Keys of Inspiration, 101 Pianists, Young Scholars and Play It Forward.