Starry Starry Night Gala

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN
FREMONT, CA

People Power Band Has the Power to Get Us Movin' on December 3rd!

By Shirley Gilbert

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This is part of the 11-piece People Power Band that will entertain at the Starry Starry Night Gala The young lady on the left is Sally Wang and she will sing five of the 36 numbers planned. Beside her is her dad and Jo Szeto’s son Gene.

      Gene Wang, son of Jo Szeto, co-president of AAUW Fremont Branch, loves high-tech, the environment and music.   He’s brought them together in his life in a very creative way.

      To utilize his high-tech background (he graduated from UC Berkeley with a Computer Science degree) he’s been involved in five high-technology start-ups, his first called Computer Motion where he created robots for surgery.

      He is now CEO of People Power, a company that provides energy consumption monitoring solutions.   He and his team are working on an energy application that can be downloaded free of charge to an iPhone or Android smart phone.  It will turn off your TV, Wii console and other energy dependent products when not in use.

      Gene adds that this solution saves money and the planet at the same time.  He refers to a quote by Al Gore that makes the point that if we just unplug our TVs we can save the energy of two coal-fired power plants.

But what's that all got to do with our Starry, Starry Night Gala on December 3rd?

      That’s where Gene’s love of music comes into play.  He has put together an 11-piece band to get us moving and shaking on December 3rd at our Starry, Starry Night Gala.   The band is called the People Power Band (yes, just like his company) and will feature a horn section, guitar, bass, keyboard and three singers.   One of the singers is Gene’s 14-year-old daughter Sally Wang.   She’ll be entertaining us with five songs.

      Gene himself plays alto sax and the flute.  His mom, Jo, interested Gene in music by enrolling him in the San Francisco Boys Chorus when he was very young.  “ That fostered my deep love of music that has lasted to this day,” says Gene.

      His dad introduced him to the flute in elementary school and that was also a musical revelation to him.   He later added the sax to his repertoire and played that instrument in his high school marching band.

      Gene’s band has played a variety of gigs but its most beloved engagements take place on Earth Day to honor the environment.  They’ve played on the steps of the Capital Building one Earth Day and this last Earth Day joined the festival in San Francisco’s City Hall (April 9, 2011).

      Gene has a great evening planned for us at the Senior Center.  The band will offer a variety of dance and holiday music and the way he looks at it is People Power will be empowering all of us with music as he and his company empower people to save energy.

      Why is Gene giving his services free of charge for this AAUW fund raising event?

      “I’m excited about this dance because I love to get a crowd dancing, moving.  It’s a great way of creating positive energy.  It’s also good way to make our feelings known for a very good cause.”

      But mainly, says Gene, he’s doing this for his mom.  “After all, she’s the very best mom in the whole world.” And what a wonderful thought for this Thanksgiving season.

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