We celebrated labor day weekend here in the U.S. with performances of the 2016 movie La La Land. I was many years out of school when the film came out in 2016, and within seconds of the opening scene, I was transported straight back to being a student in Los Angeles (at the pier in Santa Monica, having sushi at A-Float in Pasadena, practicing under the oak tree on the music campus). I'd done time at both UCLA and USC, back when life was more about the idea of who I wanted to become than who I...

I was 16 years old. Off to spend four weeks at the Chautauqua Institution high school orchestra. I remember so well the nervous and excited arrival gave way to endless days slipping between music-making and friend-making (and buffalo wings). The dining hall. The lake. The practice rooms. Noticing how good the orchestra was. And how, on the last night, we stayed up on the dock together reliving the last notes of Tchaikovsky 5. I'm still in touch with many of the friends from that summer,...

I was a student at the Aspen Music Festival for four summers. I loved that place. I couldn't get enough of the mountains, the energy of my studio, lessons with my teacher Joaquin Valdepeñas, and the incredible music-making. During my first summer though, I placed 19th out of 25 in the screened placement auditions. I remember walking up to the posted results, scanning for my number, and walking away feeling completely disheartened. My first screened audition :( But as the festival went on,...