Five Algonquin students auditioned and were accepted into the Massachusetts Music Educators Association (MMEA) All-State Festival, where student-musicians will perform at Boston Symphony Hall on March 29. Senior Evan Morgan was accepted to the choir as a bass vocalist, while junior Aaron Wu, sophomores Amy Li and Anthony Wu and freshman Leo Deng were accepted to the orchestra as violinists. Each musician has had their own musical experience that has gotten them to this point.
Senior Evan Morgan
How did you start singing?
“I mean, that started a really, really long time ago. My mom would sing to me before I would go to bed and stuff. She’s a music teacher, so I just grew up around music and I think just having that sense of, ‘It’s okay to sing, even if I’m a guy,’ thing when I was younger definitely helped. I was in chorus since I was in school, so it was definitely easier to get into.”
What does your instrument mean to you now, and how is it important in your everyday life?
“Well, I listen to music constantly. I am always singing. It’s very emotional– I can express emotion very easily through music, whether I’m sad or happy, and normally I like to be happy, but on the days that I am sad, it’s like you can express the feelings that you wanna feel through singing and that’s why I find it very valuable, but it’s also just enjoyable. Obviously, I do it a ton.”
What does this experience and opportunity mean to you?
“Well, actually, I went to All-States last year, too. I didn’t technically make it, and I was not in by one point, but I was the first one on the reserve list for the first person that got sent home. So last year was dope, and then this year I think it was more of just proving to myself that I deserved to be there. Cause last year I technically didn’t make it, and this year, I made sure I was putting in the work that needed to be done so I did get there. I think this is an opportunity to just go and enjoy the reward of the work I put in.”
Where will you go from here/what are your hopes for the future?
“I’m not actually doing anything music-related in college, major-wise. I am definitely hoping, like I do acapella here at school, I’m going to make sure to find clubs or a chorus that I can do. That’s one of the reasons that I am not going to certain schools is that I asked on tours and stuff, ‘Do you have a music program I can get involved with?’ because music, like I said, has been a part of my life for so long. I’m not about to just drop it just for educational purposes; I wanna make sure I can stay involved with extracurriculars in college and stuff.”
Junior Aaron Wu
How did you start playing violin?
“I started technically when I was three, all the way back in China… and then when we came back to the United States, I think I took like a hiatus for a while, but then we [Wu and his three brothers] ended up finding this teacher… and we ended up taking group lessons with him with a couple of other people… and now all three of us are studying… But, that’s the general progression of how we got into violin and how it’s been going.”
What does your instrument mean to you now, and how is it important in your everyday life?
“Something I would talk about would be BPYO [Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra]. It’s something that means the world to me… it’s a nonprofit organization where they just gather a bunch of students, a combination of college and high school, so it’s very high level. And we make music and we have concerts and we go on a tour every year. This is my second year now. In terms of what my instrument means to me… I’ve been introduced to a lot more pieces through BPYO… We took it on tour all throughout Europe, and it was amazing, because it’s one thing to listen to a piece on the computer with headphones, but getting to hear it in person with people who can really play their instruments… with such a dynamic range of of tones that you can get, it just is this experience of being in BPYO and getting to play awesome music with an amazing conductor with all my friends is absolutely amazing.”
What does this experience and opportunity mean to you?
“Well, it’s another time to play the Symphony Hall.. Symphony Hall is one of my favorite places on this entire planet. It is gorgeous. The hall is amazing, the acoustics are unbelievable… But the opportunity… this time this year, it’s a lot more for me about being able to play with my friends because I have a seat where I’m very close to people who I know, people who I look up to, and we all kind of inspire each other to like keep pushing… This time I get to play next to my friends, I’ll be getting to sit with people who are closer to my skill level and also closer friends to me.”
Where will you go from here/what are your hopes for the future?
“The one thing I tell myself and tell other people is that I will never stop playing violin. That is 100% given because, if I could find a home for myself, like I have with BPYO, then I’d be pretty much set for life. In terms of actually playing, I don’t plan on continuing professionally. It is a huge commitment to go professionally with violin… I just plan on not stopping and continuing violin along with whatever career path I go down… I’ve heard that there’s a lot of orchestras, which are specifically designed for people who are in STEM and also play an instrument… I feel like that would definitely be a path down to the future.”
Sophomore Amy Li
How did you start playing violin?
“When I was in kindergarten, first grade, my mom was trying to gauge and was just like, “Oh, do you ever wanna play an instrument?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ So then, she took me to an instrument shop and asked me which one I liked. And I just kind of saw the violin. I just pointed at that one and said, ‘That one.’ And that’s kind of how I got into it.”
What does your instrument mean to you now, and how is it important in your everyday life?
“I feel like, especially at first, I didn’t really like it. It was always painful to practice; I had to get into arguments in order to practice. But I guess as I grew, and my skills grew, I started going to things like orchestra, and kind of building some sort of being able to create music with other people, that kind of was the driving force behind it. It really was a huge motivator.”
What does this experience and opportunity mean to you?
“Honestly, it’s pretty exciting because I’ve heard a lot of great things about Symphony Hall from other people who played in Symphony Hall. So it’s also a huge achievement– being able to make All-States, too. So I feel like that’s part of what lends its significance.”
Where will you go from here/what are your hopes for the future?
“I definitely do hope to continue with it, it definitely brings me joy and it’s just something that I want to continue as a hobby.”
Sophomore Anthony Wu
How did you start playing violin?
“So I started when I was four. I didn’t really play very competitively until two years ago when I got with my teacher… and after that… during COVID, I had to do two years of online lessons.”
What does your instrument mean to you now, and how is it important in your everyday life?
“So violin is music, and at this level of playing the violin, it’s more about creativity and how you want to make the music. So to me, violin is like art and expressing myself.”
What does this experience and opportunity mean to you?
“This is an opportunity to make music with a lot of other great musicians… the conductor would help us be creative, and we could make better music because it’s great players and a great conductor.”
Where will you go from here/what are your hopes for the future?
“My hopes for the future with violin is to continue maybe playing some competitions because I haven’t really done any solo, which would be nice. I’d like doing those, but for example, in college, I plan to either do violin as a minor or a major because I don’t want to completely drop violin, because I spend a lot of time and effort on it.”
Freshman Leo Deng
How did you start playing violin?
“I was at my Chinese school and then there were these group lessons and my parents signed me up for them. Actually, Anthony [Wu] was in the same class as me. And then I started there, I got a private teacher and then I just kept going, and that was maybe 10 years ago.”
What does your instrument mean to you now, and how is it important in your everyday life?
“I mean, I really like music. I find it both calms me and also gives me a purpose. And it’s a lot of fun as well. I have a lot of friends that I’ve made from it.”
What does this experience and opportunity mean to you?
“I’m really excited for it. I played there once when I was much younger, but now that we’re playing there, especially with all this challenging about the tour. I’m really excited for that.”
Where will you go from here/what are your hopes for the future?
“It would be nice if I could keep playing into college, probably not a professional career, but I’d still enjoy just continuing to play.”
