Voice Lessons in Oakland, CA

Instruments: Piano Trumpet Trombone French Horn Tuba

When did you decide to become a professional musician? Was it a gradual decision or was there a defining moment for you?
I decided to become a professional musician when I was in the middle of high school, about 10th or 11th grade. While most kids would come home to do their homework and watch tv or go out, I would do my homework quickly and then go to my room to practice. The defining moment for me was when I realized how much more I knew about music than the rest of the kids in my high school band. I often heard them say that they knew how to play the music but have not heard it before, while I had already heard many different versions of it. This was a good and bad thing at the same time. It was good because I realized that I was going to take music seriously but it was bad because later on it would come as a surprise that there were so many other kids that where better than me outside of my hometown and school. As an adult, I have learned the value of being surrounded by better musicians that one can learn from.

Does music run in your family? Tell us a little about your musical family members.
Yes, both my parents are professional musicians. My mother is a pianist and my father is a violinist. My aunt and my sister are also professional violinist. As you can imagine, I grew up in a highly musical environment. My parents often held rehearsals at home with their friends, and they took me to see the symphony orchestra frequently. Oddly enough, there was not much jazz music being played at home, which is my favorite style of music now. However, I believe that listening to and learning to play classical music will prepare a musician to play and understand other musical genres later on.

If you play more than one instrument, how did you decide to start playing the second? (Or 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc)!
I actually began to play the piano before my main instrument which is the trumpet. My mother is a piano teacher as a result I began to play the piano when I was 3 years old. It was not until I turned 11 or 12 when I picked up the trumpet and began to practice on my own. A few months later after my mother saw how serious I was about the trumpet, she enrolled me in trumpet lessons. Recently, I had the opportunity to learn a few things about creating sound on the clarinet, alto saxophone and the flute. If I could learn a third instrument it would be the clarinet because of its beautiful sound.

What is your favorite style/genre of music to play and why?
I enjoy all kinds of music. However, my favorite style of of music is jazz. This goes back to when I was a child and watched the three little pigs playing their instruments at the end along with the wolf, who was playing the trumpet. After listening to this music I began to listen to Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie everyday on the bus while riding to school. I also enjoy listening to Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. French Impressionism is my favorite classical style, I guess this could be because of its similarity with jazz in terms of its harmony.

If you weren't a musician what do you think you'd be doing instead?
Because I was born in a musical family, I have not really thought about this question. However, I think I would enjoy studying and working in the field of advertisement. Advertisement is the only other job outside of all arts that I can think of that would require creativity and that the end result of your work can be seen by millions of people. As musicians, we work on advertisement every time we try to sell a piece of music to our audience, especially when the music is our own or when the music is not well known. You never know how people are going to react to something new and it is the musician's job to sell it.

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