I have been playing the clarinet since third grade (2010) after my older brother starting playing the saxophone. Given that I was deep in my Beatles phase, I loved the clarinet feature in “When I’m Sixty-Four” and proceeded to buy a “The Best of The Beatles” songbook which would become my roadmap for learning how to play. By fourth grade I was playing with the fifth grade band and by fifth grade I would leave elementary school early to fill out the middle school band (truancy is not a joke).
I began playing orchestral music in eighth grade (2014) when I joined the local Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. Due to the way the clarinet was developed in the 1700s, orchestral clarinetists typically own two clarinets which are tuned one half-step away from each other to accommodate challenging key signatures. Written in 1888, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony required an A clarinet, which I did not have. I transcribed (rewrote in a different key) the audition excerpts by hand and played them on my standard Bb clarinet. Despite the fact that the difference made my audition significantly harder, I was accepted!
Three years later, I auditioned for the more competitive Young People’s Symphony Orchestra, which is open to the entire San Francisco Bay Area. After practicing 3+ hours per day for over 3 months, I was accepted to the orchestra and had the privilege of performing 4 concerts per year until I graduated high school. In that time, I was also accepted to the California All-State band, which accepts the best musicians in the state of California. In addition to playing the clarinet, I also played jazz saxophone through high school.
At UCSB, I continued my studies through the Music Department by taking lessons and performing with the University Wind Ensemble and Chamber Orchestra every quarter, even virtually during the pandemic. When in-person instruction resumed at UCSB, I was invited to join the pit orchestra for Mozart’s Magic Flute opera, and I was one of the only non-music major or minor to hold a recital. In my final year at UCSB, I was awarded a position in the Nuñes Scholarship Woodwind Quintet.
See below for links to a few of my performances throughout the years!
Magic Flute Opera Production (2022)