‘I could have never imagined that this would happen’: How a group of Korean harmonica players captivated the world
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Ryan S. Clark
For a specific generation of Koreans, playing the harmonica is a reminder of their youth and their home — whereas not playing the harmonica for decades reminds them of what they left behind to pursue something more.
This includes Donna Lee. Now that she’s 80 years old, Lee can look back on a life growing up in Seoul, where she played the harmonica as a child in music class. She immigrated to the United States, and that led her to Southern California. She found a place in Koreatown, near downtown Los Angeles, where she still lives to this day, and worked at a local hospital for nearly 30 years before retiring.
Retiring left her bored and wanting more. That drew her to the Koreatown Senior and Community Center of Los Angeles. The center offered Lee and many of her compatriots a chance to take classes and enjoy the life they worked so hard to create. Then, in 2023, Lee joined the center’s harmonica class, in which she and her classmates repeatedly practiced “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
“We have a weekly practice that’s one or two hours,” Lee said. “We’ve done it almost every week and have played it so many times I can’t count.”
With Los Angeles having the largest Korean community in the nation, the class was asked to perform at various events throughout the area. In January, the Los Angeles Kings reached out to the KSCC and invited the harmonica class to perform in March as part of the team’s Korean heritage night.
The response they received was so strong that they were invited to perform the national anthem before Game 1 of the Kings’ first-round Western Conference series against the Edmonton Oilers on April 21. Lee and 12 of her classmates donning hanbok — which is traditional Korean clothing — performed the national anthem and immediately went viral in a game the Kings won.
🎶Harmonicas heard ’round the world 🎶
📲 https://t.co/GBuBWqCo9w#GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/EobOzy8HKi
— x – LA Kings (@LAKings) April 22, 2025
The performance was so popular that it led to the group being invited to perform at Game 2, which not only saw them gain more fans, but the Kings also won to take a 2-0 series lead. Since then? They’ve turned into a sensation that has not only caught the attention of the hockey world and Southern California, but it’s even getting attention in South Korea.
“I could have never imagined that this would happen,” Lee said.
IN THE SPAN of two years, the KSCC’s harmonica class went from only playing the national anthem in a classroom to performing in front of 18,000 fans on heritage night.
That was already the experience of a lifetime. But to receive an invite to perform at a Stanley Cup playoff game? Not only once, but twice? And to have nearly everyone in the building sing with their performance, and have social media go into a frenzy, with fans asking that they return for every home game?
It’s the sort of encounter that goes well beyond hockey, treading into a place that is deeper and more meaningful for Kwan-Il Park, a retired political journalist in South Korea who is now the KSCC’s executive director.
“There hasn’t been that many chances where the Korean community and the mainstream community was able to come together in this way,” Park said through Sandra Choi, who serves as an interpreter and is also a volunteer at the KSCC. “The key point in this is that the harmonica is not an expensive instrument. It’s $15 or $20 and it’s an everyday instrument for everybody.”
Park said the fact that the class was able to perform the national anthem with an instrument that is so universal created a moment that saw them feel immersed in their culture, while also paying homage to a place they’ve now called home for many years.
“We’ve always been perceived to be outsiders, immigrants with cultural barriers and language barriers,” Park said. “You come here, work straight for 30 or 40 years. This time, we were able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder as a Korean American and not just as an immigrant and to perform in front of 20,000 people? I don’t even know what the right word is for that.”
Park said Koreans first began immigrating to the U.S. in 1903, with many coming to cities along the Pacific Ocean. After the Korean War in the 1950s, there would be a second wave that contributed to the current landscape in which nearly 2 million Koreans live in the U.S.
Although Chicago, New York City and Washington D.C. have sizable Korean communities, Los Angeles has the largest, with 17% of all people of Korean descent in America living there, according to the Pew Research Center.
But what makes playing the national anthem on a harmonica so special? It’s because of how the instrument ties a life they once knew with the one they came to build for themselves and future generations.
KSCC chairperson Yong-Sin Shin said a certain generation of children growing up in South Korea were introduced to the harmonica in second grade as part of music class. While those children had a chance to play for a few more years, many of them stopped playing after immigrating to the U.S.
For the group at the KSCC, the harmonica connected them to those times.
Choi said that for many older Koreans, playing the harmonica was a chance for them to relax, which was something that often wasn’t afforded to a group that spent many of their years working to take care of their families.
“We would find a harmonica in my house because my dad had one,” Choi said. “If he plays it, it somehow rings a soul of my childhood as a Korean American. Even though I’m not from Korea, it has kind of a tie to all of us with the tone and the songs that we play on it.”
Shin said the KSCC was founded with the intent that older generations of Koreans could find community while providing them classes to fulfill them in their later years.
At first, the KSCC offered five classes per week. Since then, the center has expanded its offerings to 47 classes every Monday through Friday. Shin said the center attracts nearly 1,500 people per week.
Those classes range from developing skills that can be used in daily life to subjects that are meant as a hobby. For example, the KSCC offers multiple classes for those interested in improving their oral and written skills in English. They also provide beginner- and intermediate-level classes for those who want to learn how to use a smartphone.
Yet the crown jewel of the KSCC curriculum? It might be the 11:10 a.m. Wednesday harmonica class that lasts for 50 minutes.
Shin said the harmonica class started in 2021. The class started off by practicing for weeks at a time before they felt comfortable performing in public. Shin said the class would perform at events such as Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving or Seollal, which is Korean Lunar New Year in February. The profile of the class began to grow when the group was invited to perform at Los Angeles City Hall in 2023.
“Our senior harmonica class performed in front of 100 people and everybody liked it,” Shin said. “So, we continued to perform at our events at the senior center and they got better and better, and we started to get more invitations to play the harmonica.”
THERE’S A POINT that Park, Shin and Choi, even speaking outside of her role as an interpreter, all get across when it comes to the performance of the harmonica class and the popularity it achieved in such a short window.
Nobody saw this coming.
“I have a child in high school, and she even showed me the clip because it was so viral,” Choi said. “She said, ‘Isn’t this where we volunteer?'”
Part of the reason for that surprise can be measured through social media. It’s not easy to find a video of the group’s first performance for the Kings, probably because it was a regular-season game.
Compare that to the playoffs, when the anthem was televised nationally in North America.
Granted, anthem singers are no strangers to attention. But when it’s around a dozen Korean senior citizens performing — with harmonicas? Something that distinctive was bound to attract attention inside and outside the sport.
And it did, resulting in the group being invited back for Game 2, but this time instead of wearing traditional Korean clothing, they were decked out in Kings jerseys — while also having even more expectations now that the masses knew what was coming.
Their performances have led to people posting comments on social media that range from “Oilers comeback bid was cool but you ain’t beating the Kings in the house that the Korean Harmonica Grannies built” to an Oilers fan asking, “Does anyone in the Edmonton Korean Community play Harmonica? We need to fight fire with fire here.”
“We were not nervous,” Lee said of herself and her classmates. “It was my first time going to the arena because of the performance. So many people were surprised, and we just enjoyed the wonderful arena. It was a big place with a lot of people. We thought the performance was good and we just did a lot of preparing and practicing for the national anthem.”
Lee said she had never watched a Kings game but made a point to stay for Game 1 and immediately became a fan. She said there were some members of the class who stayed and others who went home.
But now?
“We’re all L.A. Kings fans now!” she said with a laugh.
Lee and Park said they have heard from family and friends in South Korea about how their performance has made headlines there. This is another detail nobody saw coming, but it adds to the visibility of Korean culture.
The Kings joined the Lakers, Dodgers and Clippers in having a Korean heritage night. Both the Rams and Chargers have also promoted initiatives during Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Month.
It’s also coming at a time when more Korean food, film, music and television hold a place in the mainstream.
“We have K-pop, K-drama, K-food, K-beauty — and now we have K-seniors,” Lee said.
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Greg Wyshynski
When Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk raised the Stanley Cup over his head for the second straight season, the on-ice celebration included two of the most important people in his life: Father Keith Tkachuk, who played 18 seasons in the NHL; and brother Brady Tkachuk, captain of the Ottawa Senators.
Keith was smoking cigars and hoisting the Cup with Matthew around the arena. Brady was holding a beer and diligently avoiding contact with the Cup, as superstition dictates that an NHL player should never touch it if they’ve never won it before.
The celebration was another memorable moment for the Tkachuk boys and their father. This month, another one arrived: The trio graces the cover of EA Sports’ NHL 26 Deluxe Edition.
“Growing up, Matthew and I dreamed of playing just like our dad,” Brady Tkachuk said. “Even now, his influence on how we play and prepare remains huge. It’s an honor to be featured on the cover. Having him standing alongside us makes the whole thing even better.”
We spoke with Matthew and Brady Tkachuk recently about their video game history, the Panthers’ wild offseason, Brady’s future in Ottawa, Matthew’s health heading into next season and their thoughts on the new NHL collective bargaining agreement.
But first, we asked two of the first players named to the 2026 U.S. men’s Olympic ice hockey team about chasing gold. Responses were edited for length and clarity.
You guys became USA Hockey legends after the 4 Nations Face-Off, if you weren’t already. Obviously, the tournament did not end the way Americans wanted. Is winning Olympic gold in the 2026 Winter Games in Italy the ultimate revenge on our friends in Canada?
MATTHEW TKACHUK: I don’t even know if you look at it as revenge, but it’s been a long time coming since USA Hockey’s been at the top of the mountain. Canada’s owned the Olympics or World Cups or even the world championships, although we got that back a little bit this year. They’ve been the leader in all of that and the team that we’ve all been trying to knock off.
I don’t think it’d be as much as revenge than showing how far along USA Hockey has come. We’ve had some incredible players and national teams that we’ve looked up to our whole lives but that haven’t gotten the job done. So, not only would winning [gold] accomplish dreams for us, but hopefully it would bring a lot of satisfaction for those guys that paved the way for us.
Brady, you play in a Canadian city while trying to win Olympic gold for the Americans. What’s that dynamic like?
BRADY TKACHUK: Learning from experience, it’s a little bit of a different position to be in. All the people that support you on a day-to-day basis, now they don’t want you to win.
Your dream as kids is winning the Stanley Cup and winning a gold medal for your country. I know that’s always been our two main goals. But we got into hockey, and a lot of people got into hockey, from the 1980 Miracle on Ice. And now, we have an opportunity to pave the way for the next generation of kids in the U.S. that maybe wouldn’t be playing hockey if they didn’t get to experience USA Hockey in the Winter Olympics and potential gold medals.
There’s not just playing for ourselves in that locker room with that group, but you’re really playing for your country and you’re playing for the next generation of kids. And like Matthew said, you’re playing for the guys that have paved the way, that are to be so supportive and fired up to be watching.
You guys are NHL 26 cover athletes, along with your dad. We spoke to Keith recently, who reminisced about seeing the glow of a video game screen under the doors of your bedrooms, whether it was when you were younger or in Matt’s case, when he was playing in Calgary. What’s your brief history of playing video games together?
MATTHEW TKACHUK: Yeah, we would play. I think during COVID was probably the last time I religiously played, and that was when we were all under one roof before I had my house in St. Louis. Brady and I played a lot. NHL is definitely one of them. I think Brady has played more throughout his life than I have, and that was one of the things that he was much better at than I am. So, I didn’t really play too much against him.
We played the game like how you’d probably expect us to play: Turn off all the penalties, make all the guys really big and fast. It was like prison rules NHL. So, it was a lot of fun.
BRADY TKACHUK: I honestly feel like we had a pretty religious routine. Right after school, if it was a nice day, out for roller hockey then dinner and then we were playing NHL. We try to sneak in a best-of-seven if it was early enough, but it was a lot of fun. Either we played together or most of the time, we’re playing together against each other and it was a ton of fun.
Now that you’re in the NHL, what is the level of interest or concern among the boys when it comes to their EA Sports ratings? Do they still care?
MATTHEW TKACHUK: We don’t talk about it too much. I know that there’s one day, maybe it might be at the beginning of the year, which I guess is coming up here soon, where you go over your rating or you guess another player’s rating. I think where they get pissed off is when you guess their rating and it’s way lower than their actual rating is.
You’ve got to be careful with who the sensitive guys are on the team because you don’t want that to actually affect them — and you never know if it might. Hockey players are proud athletes. You want to have a decent rating.
BRADY TKACHUK: I’m probably one of the guys that will just play a game as the Sens to see where my rating is at, to see how good my guy is. This version is exciting because it’s more individual-based. You can see within the game how I am in real life, and that’s really cool and unique.
These ratings are always fun. And to be honest with you, I don’t know what the rating is going into this year’s game. I know they give a midyear bump and that’s the goal: That hopefully I get a midyear bump because that means I’m playing well.
Matthew, your name was recently listed by the White House as being part of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, joining names like Wayne Gretzky and Mariano Rivera. How did you get involved in that?
MATTHEW TKACHUK: I’m not actually allowed to comment on that until it’s official yet. So, I have to wait on that a little bit. But I promise in a few weeks, if that comes true, I’ll answer that for you.
Let’s talk about something that did come true: The Florida Panthers somehow hanging on to Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad and Brad Marchand as free agents. How shocked were you that GM Bill Zito was able to pull that off?
MATTHEW TKACHUK: I don’t know if I was shocked. I think at the time, as a player and more importantly as a friend, you’re more worried that one of your buddies is going to go elsewhere. At the end of the day, you want your teammates and your best buddies to be happy with whatever decision they make. So, if that’s chasing a ton of money or if that’s going to where they want to play, you just got to be happy for them.
The best part about those three is they all believe in what we’re doing in Florida. They want to live in Florida, they want to play on a good team, and they want to have a great group of players surrounding them.
Out of all of them, I was most confident in [Ekblad] staying the most. Just because he’s been a lifelong Florida Panther. I just think it was going to be impossible for him to leave. And then the other guys … I mean, this was a chance for them to cash in. You just didn’t know if it was going to be with us or not.
I was surprised, though, that they were all able to stay. I thought that with the way the money was tied up, you didn’t know if it was going to be possible — and somehow it was. Everybody was taken care of so well.
Bill did a great job of making sure it could happen. You want your best buddies to be rewarded with how great they played and how great they’ve been up to this point. I think they all got rewarded very well, and I’m just so excited to have a chance to hopefully run it back with them this year.
When did you know about Marchand? Was it when he was smoking cigars on the back of a golf cart outside of the Elbo Room? At some point, were you just convinced the guy liked it down there vs. leaving as a free agent?
MATTHEW TKACHUK: Marchand, when he first got traded, I would’ve thought there was never a chance that we’re going to be able to keep everybody. As time goes on and you have success and you get to know guys and you get to know what their wants and desires are with the rest of their career — or where they want to live — you can start connecting the dots. People just don’t want to leave Florida when they come. I think that that is the case with them and everybody that’s been there.
The only time you’re going to see guys leave is if it’s such a crazy difference with money. Some of these guys that we’ve had the last few years have really cashed in with other teams, which we’re so happy to see. I think that’s really the only way you’re going to see guys go elsewhere.
We have too good of a thing going right now, and everybody wants to be a part of it.
Brady, your dad threw cold water on all the speculation about you leaving Ottawa when we spoke recently. How much did making the playoffs, showing the progress of the Senators, give you a sense of relief that maybe some of that speculation might go by the wayside now?
BRADY TKACHUK: Yeah, I think we really needed to make the playoffs to show everybody that we’re a team that’s capable of that, but also capable of doing more than just making the playoffs.
The last couple of years, it was kind of stagnant. We had high expectations and we didn’t quite accomplish what we needed to. And with that came doubt. But I think it showed with the steps that we took last year that we have a great hockey team. I think that we’re kind of just getting started with what we want to accomplish. Playoffs are great to get to, but that’s not our end goal. The sky’s the limit for our group.
I think [that success] helped with all the speculation. When things aren’t going well, people are always assuming or trying to think in my shoes. But I was kind of never really in that thought process. It was all about sticking it out. It’s been a long time coming, for not just our team but the city, to get into the playoffs. And I think it was really important to me to end that drought.
Through all that adversity that we faced with being the bottom five teams to finally get to the playoffs was an amazing feeling. But now that we got there, I think everybody wants a little bit more and wants to accomplish all of our childhood dreams.
Obviously, the season is getting closer. Brady, we saw you were training with Trevor Zegras this summer. What are your thoughts about him getting a fresh start in Philadelphia with the Flyers?
BRADY TKACHUK: Yeah, I drove up to Connecticut and skated with him. I’ve known ‘Z’ throughout the years but got to know him pretty well when we played world championships together. He’s a great guy, and I think it’s going to be great for him to get a fresh start in Philly and under Rick Tocchet. They have a great culture there, and I think he’s just going to do a good job of fitting in.
I’ve always thought playing against Philly that they play super hard, but they have a lot of great players with skill. So, I think that is going to be the best thing for him. I’m excited to see his progression this year and see how the change affects him. I bet that’s going to be for the good.
Matthew, you were dealing with some significant injuries by the end of last season and said it was “50/50” regarding offseason surgery. What’s your path for the next few months? Are you still hoping to maybe hit the ice in October?
MATTHEW TKACHUK: I’m still hoping to hit the ice as soon as possible. If I do get the surgery, it definitely will be the first two, maybe three months [of the season] if that’s the case. But it’s still undecided at this point.
Finally, the NHL and NHLPA have signed off on a new collective bargaining agreement. We haven’t heard from many players about this deal. What did you like? What did you wish was in it that didn’t make the cut?
BRADY TKACHUK: I think Marty [Walsh], Ron Hainsey and the NHLPA did a really good job. A lot of it came behind the scenes with the NHL. They kept it discreet.
I think it’s important that we did a four-year deal and to navigate where our league is in four years’ time. Obviously, there’s things that will probably trend and want maybe more of in four years’ time. But I think the changes that they made are exciting. The 84-game schedule [means] more hockey for people to come and watch. I think it’s going to be good.
Less preseason crap, too.
MATTHEW TKACHUK: Took the words right out of my mouth.
That’s the one main thing I like. I’ve never liked the preseason setup. I mean, guys do a great job of coming into [camp] in shape. There are the captain’s skates before the preseason because everyone wants to get back and see the boys. So, I think preseason has been overrated. It’s way too long, and the games are way too much. However they were able to shorten that, I was on board with that for sure.
Just get into the season. Just get on with it.
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Greg Wyshynski
Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk said he remains undecided about getting surgery before the 2025-26 season but acknowledged he could miss significant time should he require it.
Tkachuk, 27, revealed after the season that he sustained a torn adductor muscle and a sports hernia injury while playing for Team USA in the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. He missed the final 25 games of the NHL regular season but returned for Game 1 of the Panthers’ first-round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tkachuk had 23 points (8 goals, 15 assists) in 23 games during the playoffs, including seven points in the final against Edmonton, to lead the Panthers to their second straight Stanley Cup championship.
Coach Paul Maurice said his star forward was “a mess” healthwise heading into the postseason.
“We weren’t hopeful at the start that he would survive the first round,” he said.
Tkachuk said after the season that it was “50/50” whether he’d have surgery, adding that the offseason provided ample time to make that call. Tkachuk told ESPN on Friday that “I’m still hoping to hit the ice as soon as possible.” Should he decide to go under the knife, Tkachuk said, it’s likely he’ll miss multiple months of action.
“If I do get the surgery, it’ll definitely be the first two or maybe three months if that’s the case. But it’s still undecided at this point,” said the Panthers star, whose contract and cap hit could be placed on long-term injured reserve during his recovery.
It’s been a notable offseason for Tkachuk. He appears on the cover of EA Sports’ NHL 26 and is featured with brother Brady and father Keith on the cover of the game’s deluxe edition.
Matthew and Brady Tkachuk were among the first six players named to the 2026 U.S. men’s Olympic hockey roster for the Winter Games in Italy next year. Matthew Tkachuk also married fiancée Ellie Connell in July.
All of that was after another epic, multiday Stanley Cup celebration by the Panthers in Fort Lauderdale and Miami that featured spontaneous appearances at bars, clubs and beaches as well as a championship parade.
The Panthers’ chances for a third straight Stanley Cup received a boost this summer when GM Bill Zito was able to re-sign a trio of star veteran free agents: center Sam Bennett (8 years, $64 million), defenseman Aaron Ekblad (8 years, $48 million), and winger Brad Marchand (6 years, $31.5 million).
Tkachuk said that he wasn’t surprised that all three players wanted to remain with the Panthers but that he was amazed that Zito found a way to make the money work under the salary cap.
“I thought that the way the money was tied up, you didn’t know it was going to be possible, and somehow it was,” he said. “Everybody was taken care of so well, and Bill did a great job of making sure it could happen. I think they all got rewarded very well, and I’m just so excited to have a chance to hopefully run it back with them this year.”
Tkachuk said he was confident that Ekblad would return, having been a Panther since he was drafted by Florida first overall in 2014. He was a little less certain about Bennett and especially Marchand, who both had a chance to break the bank in free agency.
“When Marchand first got traded [at the deadline this spring], I would’ve thought there was never a chance that we were going to be able to keep everybody. But as time goes on and you have success and you get to know guys’ wants and desires for the rest of their career, you can start connecting the dots,” Tkachuk said. “People just don’t want to leave Florida when they come [here]. We have too good of a thing going right now, and everybody wants to be a part of it.”
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