Okay!  :)  

5.  What piece made you fall in love with your instrument?

Hm.  When I was 11 I played Mozart’s sonata K 545, the first movement, and I remember it was the first piece that really made me feel proud to play the piano, and it also felt like a pretty big achievement to me at the time too! 

10.  Who is your favorite alive artist?

That is a tough one, I don’t really know too many professional classical music artists other than piano players that I have watched play piano pieces on you tube.  I have liked versions of pieces performed by Martha Agrerich.  She has performed some Chopin pieces that I have enjoyed listening to. 

15.  What are you grateful for, related to your music?

There are so many things!  I am grateful that both listening to and playing music, whether it was working on piano pieces sololy, or accompanying, or playing flute with concert/symphonic band, has given me a way to feel and express emotions.  

I am also grateful for friendships that were formed through music, whether it was through an ensemble, through students of a same music teacher, or through Sigma Alpha Iota.  It is important to have friendships with others who understand and feel the same significance towards the importance of music.  

20.  Have you played anything by an alive composer?

Yes.  I may not be able to name all of the pieces.  I remember in middle school band we played an arrangement of the music from harry potter, John Williams.  I think at one point we also played a star wars arrangement too!  

In high school band we performed “hide and seek” by imogen heep.  It was an instrumental arrangement for a band, so she may not have arranged it herself, but it was based off of her song.  

I can’t remember all of the pieces that I have performed to name more possible ones unfortunately.  

25.  What music genre do you listen to the most?

Well, I haven’t been listening to classical music too often anymore these days.  Currently, I would say it is a tie between indie and alternative rock.  

30.  Do you practice every day?

I used to practice piano everyday at one point in time.  However, I don’t currently have a piano, so I really haven’t been working on piano pieces at the moment.  :(.  I always hope that someday I will have a piano again, and will have the opportunity to work on pieces again, even if it is just me working on pieces that aren’t necessarily super advanced, but are simply for my own enjoyment.  

35.  What do you feel when you stand in front of the audience when you take a bow before your performance?

Oh wow!  When I used to play piano growing up, I think usually just kind of hoped that I wasn’t going to mess up or make mistakes which would be super obvious or apparent to the audience.  I sometimes felt a little bit nervous too, haha. 

For concert band/symphonic band, I usually didn’t feel too nervous since I was playing with a group.  With that, the bows just felt like they were step one of the performance before the music started.  

40.  How do you memorize a piece?

Oh wow!  So, some of it truthfully would come to me from muscle memory, which made it easier, but then if I made a mistake or second guessed myself, that became a small problem sometimes.  I think sometimes I would try to divide it into sections, and if applicable, I would try to think about what chords were being used relative to the key, or the notes in the scale that were being used.  Sometimes even counting out loud and feeling confident in the rhythm helped!  If something was more tricky, even memorizing hands separately helped!  

(This was all for piano.  I don’t think I ever memorized a flute piece).  

45.  Do you plan your practice session, how?

I would usually plan a practice session based on where I left off the night before, and what I still needed to achieve before my next lesson or rehearsal.  I would usually have goals for each piece, and I usually ended up working on my favorite pieces a little bit more often, but I would try to at least work on as many pieces as I could get to before I needed to stop.  Sometimes I would even write out a list of goals for each piece to help me feel more organized.  

50.  What is your favorite chamber music piece?

I am not sure if this counts since this isn’t technically classical, but I like to listen to the piano/cello cover of “A thousand year”.  It feels super peaceful.  I also appreciate “pompeii” by the vitamin string quartet.  

55.  Have you played a 30+ min piece?

I cannot say that I have.  

60.  Why do you love music?

I love that music makes me feel emotions, whether they are happy, or deep, or a little bit more serious emotions.  I tend to listen to music while doing homework, or organizing my apartment, or driving.  I think it is something that also stimulates the brain in many ways that other things cannot, and that is also pretty special!  

Thank you for the ask!  :)