How long have you been playing piano?
About 11 years now. I started when I was 6. My first teacher moved to Georgia when I was about five years in. My teacher (now), Barbara Parker, literally flipped my entire life because she pushed me so hard, and I’m glad that I found her because without her I don’t think I could have progressed as much.
Why do you love piano?
My parents used to really force me to practice all the time. But starting around sophomore year when I started to take it really seriously, I would just practice … on my own without my parents telling me, because I just started really loving the music I was playing. Once you are at a decent level, you start to really enjoy the music that you are playing, and start just mindlessly practicing.
Last year at the beginning of the year 2017, I was playing football … and I jammed my finger and I couldn’t practice for three weeks. Those three weeks were so weird, the atmosphere in my house felt like something was missing. I’m always listening to classical music, I’m one of those people who can cry from listening to classical music … It reminds me why I’m practicing all the time. It’s just to have this beautiful music, and share it with other people. Last summer I played at a Alzheimer’s event, and someone after the performance was crying and asking for my signature. It was really sweet, and I’m never gonna forget that. I just really like how touching and moving piano can be for other people.
How does music help you in your everyday life?
Having the discipline to practice something everyday can help you with time management in different parts of your life. And I’m studying music in the future, I’m going to be majoring in music and probably minoring in some science. Not to be a concert pianist or anything but head toward medical school. Music and science, they’re different but I feel like the discipline it takes to study something for a really long time and managing your time wisely can transfer into studying medicine.
What are competitions like?
So there are three types: You have the classic festival, romantic festival and Baroque festival … So I just prepare a piece from that time era, and I compete against like five other people in my age group. And there is a judge there and he will give me tips right after I play. Then at the end of the competition you find out who won … since 2013 I’ve been doing all the festivals. The weeks before competition are slightly stressful, because I have to record myself all the time. It’s easy to … space out when you are practicing a piece that you have been with for a while.
I used to be very scared of performing, but I’ve grown to really like it … I’m just a competitive person in general, as are a lot of people. Even in class and silly things with my friends I’m competitive, and I do like the competitive aspect of piano performance.
How is practice different when you are preparing for competition?
When I’m learning new music and not competing it’s a different type of practicing. It’s not as enjoyable to me. It’s like figuring out a puzzle once you actually have the piece learned. I just love polishing, which is you know finding your hard spots and working on those, and performing and recording yourself. I try to get a group together to play for them to fake a performance so that I’m more prepared.
How does it feel to win competitions?
It feels pretty cool, I don’t like dwelling on knowing I won first place, because I always know that there’s always something to improve. There’s always room for growth no matter how good you are, so I just like to keep that in mind.
Do you think music will always remain a part of your life?
Well I’ll be majoring in piano performance. I’ll just always be taking music classes, but also I’ll be taking (breaks) for medical school. After undergrad I don’t think I’ll continue playing piano, just because the time commitment to medical school that I’m really going to need … I’ll still play here and there, (but) there’s just so much time that goes into medical school I don’t think I’ll have to time to practice or play.
