Jourdan Urbach, 19

When Jourdan Urbach was a little boy, he wanted to be a doctor. He has since settled on being a concert violinist.
Urbach is currently a sophomore at Yale and creator of Children Helping Children, an organization that organizes fundraising events through Concerts for a Cure to support medical research for neurological conditions.

As a violin prodigy with a promising career ahead of him, Urbach could have used all his time to focus on his art. But he knew that wasn’t enough. “I was raised with this concept of tzedakah,” he says, “It’s a mandate to give back.”

When Urbach was younger, he would play violin for children in the hospital. He still does that occasionally, but his hospital visits eventually evolved into Concerts for a Cure, musical evenings that Urbach organizes and promotes, in which he and others perform for charity. He has even held these evenings in venues such as Carnegie Hall. So far, Concerts for a Cure has raised nearly $5 million.

Urbach also created the International Coalition of College Philanthropists to connect young social entrepreneurs around the country.

He intends to continue his music career and turn the classical world on its head. In the meantime, he plans to keep working for charities, which he sees as his duty. “Responsible music is a quest,” he says, “And I’m still trying to figure out what constitutes it.”

Fun fact: In his precious free time, Urbach enjoys kayaking.