Music has been a big part of my life. I grew up listening to classical music because my parents often listened to it. I started playing violin when I was about five. I don't remember how I started. According to my mom, one day I asked for a violin. She thought that I wasn't serious, so she rented one for me thinking that I would just play with it for a short while and then get tired of it, but to my mom's surprise, I played with it like a favorite toy, so my parents decided to have me take lessons.
For some reason, throughout elementary school, I liked playing violin but I never had motivation to practice so my parents would often tell me to practice. Sometimes they got pretty frustrated with telling me to practice. In the middle of sixth grade, I started studying violin with Drew Lecher. After I had my first lesson with him, I felt that for the first time in a long time I had learn a lot during a lesson. For the three years before I started studying with him, I had not learned very much, but while studying with Mr. Lecher, my playing improved dramatically. Before I studied with him, I never thought that I would be able to play pieces that professional violinists play. Within a few months of my first lesson with him, I started learning a Mozart concerto, and a year later I started learning Symphonie Espagnole by Lalo. While I was studying with Mr. Lecher, not only did my playing improve, but I became much more interested in playing than I had been before. When I started learning Symphonie Espagnole, I realized that I was able to play some of the pieces that professional violinists play. Before, my parents struggled to get me to practice, but I found myself not only practicing on my own initiative but also practicing as many as three or four hours a day during summer vacations. By the time I came to MIT, I had learned pieces like the Brahms concerto, the Tchaikovsky concerto, and Sarasate's "Carmen Fantasy."
Most of my music has involved the violin, but I did some singing while I was in junior high, and studied some piano while I was in elementary school.
Throughout high school, I participated in my high school's orchestra, regional and state music festivals, musicals, and competitions. I was never one to win prestigious competitions like the Illinois Young Performers Competition (If you can win that competition, then chances are that you would be competitive in international competitions). The farthest I ever got in music competitions was placing 10th in the 1st violin section of the 1992 Illinois Music Educators Association All-State Honors Orchestra. Nevertheless, I'm quite satisfied with what I've accomplished in music.
These days, I'm usually too busy to study violin, but I try to participate in at least one musical activity each year. For all of my undergraduate years at MIT, I participated in Next Act, the annual Next House muscial production. Freshman year, I played for the MIT Symphony Orchestra, and during my senior year, I played for MIT's Independent Activities Period (IAP) Symphony Orchestra.
Here are some classical music links that you can explore:
