Benjamin the Musician

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“I play the trumpet. I’m principal trumpet in the Symphonic Band and a bunch of stuff. I do a bunch of music at the Third Street Music School where I play in an orchestra, a jazz band and a winds ensemble. And I play some chamber music too.”

“Per week, I probably spend around ten to fifteen hours [on music].”

When He’s Away from the Trumpet

“I have the math thing or whatever going on also. And I’m interested in the stuff that I’m studying and, though, I mean, I love music, there is the sort of financial side of things, being that, chances are, I’m not going to be the next Miles Davis, so, unless you’re the next Miles Davis you’re not going to make a ton of money. But that’s not the real reason. If I, sort of, felt that music was life, regardless of whether or not I was the next Miles Davis I would go into it, and I would say that anyone who feels like music is their life should go into it. But I have so much else going on right now that, even putting financial consideration aside, I would probably not be going into music.”

The Roots

“I started off playing music. My brother took piano lessons when he was six and I was three. So, my brother started music when he was six and I would sort of bang on the piano or whatever when he wasn’t practicing. [...] I started formally taking piano lessons at age five. My parents set that up for me and I started playing the trumpet in fifth grade because of the middle school I was at, Berkeley Carroll. My brother was in eighth grade. The middle school there goes from fifth to eighth. So my brother was in eighth grade playing piano in the jazz band already and I wouldn’t have been able to be in the jazz band, in fifth grade. And so I started playing the trumpet also. Gradually, like, the trumpet started to take over my musical life and I sadly dropped piano. I wish I still played piano. I really should still play piano. I know a little bit but I’m not very good. I don’t take lessons anymore. I’ve been taking music lessons, of some form or another, since I was five. So actually, in terms of general music lessons where people like bang on xylophones or whatever, I probably was doing that before five also.”

Sing-or rather Play Trumpet-for the Moment

“At the moment, in terms of how I see myself doing music in college, I see myself playing a lot. I don’t see myself majoring in music. I don’t see myself going to a conservatory. I mean, though I love music and I definitely want to play the trumpet, I don’t necessary think that will be my profession or what I’m going to focus on when I’m at college. I also have some other stuff going on.”

Conservatories Going Out of Fashion

“I’m not really sure. My guess is that at Stuyvesant, you have a lot of really bright students, a lot of really smart students, a lot of great musicians, who are also really good at other things. And sometimes the financial concerns move them toward those other things or they are drawn to those other things for other reasons. Some people are drawn for financial reasons. I’m not. I’m drawn for other reasons.”

Don’t Be So Modest, USA Mathematical Olympiad Qualifier

“I really have liked math. I’ve [...] gotten more and more into math since I’ve come to Stuyvesant. I sort of think that the decision to come to Stuyvesant was sort of, in eighth grade, a minor version of the decision of not going to a music conservatory. I could have gone to Stuyvesant or LaGuardia and I decided to go to Stuyvesant, mainly because I knew that I could always still be playing music and be sort of learning this other stuff which I really like. I don’t really see myself not going into music. I see myself studying pure math or studying whatever I end up studying. [...] I get intellectual pleasure out of doing all this other stuff in a very different way from the sort of basic pleasure you get from hearing a sound that you’re making, be it pleasant or unpleasant.”

“Math is just sort of entertainment for my brain whereas music is entertainment for my ears. And I mean I don’t see myself as not playing music. I see myself continuing to play trumpet, continuing to spend time on it, but not necessarily as a profession or a major in college.”

Huei Lin, Saxophonist and Pianist, Sophomore

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The Run-Down

“I take piano lessons and saxophone lessons at Third Street Music School. I’ve been taking piano since I was five and saxophone since I was eight or nine. Unfortunately I don’t do that much with piano besides private instruction but with saxophone I play in a bunch in jazz combos and [...] in a band with some kids from Stuyvesant. We’ve been playing a couples gigs at places like the Bowery Poetry Club, the Tank and this crazy place in Brooklyn.”

You Can’t Rush Art

“I really cannot begin to think about how much time it takes. [...] Because, practicing alone, I usually do an hour of piano every day. And two to three hours of saxophone and then on top of that, each lesson is an hour once a week. And on Saturdays I have chamber group rehearsals and that’s an hour. Then I play in a jazz band at Third Street and that’s also an hour. And band practices with [junior and musician] Audri Augenbraum’s band are usually once every other week, from two to three hours. So I can’t do the math in my head, but if someone wants to, then that’d be cool.”

Blessed Unrest

“When you hear music that you love, or you play music that you love, you just get this emotional rush that’s great. Especially when you play with other people, there’s just this crazy, like, energy that’s going around that can’t be replaced by anything else.”

As Far as Alternatives to Music Go

“I don’t think a conservatory would be the right place for me because there would just be so much music all the time that, honestly, I would get kind of sick of it.”

“Music has already absorbed so much of my time now. I feel like when I get to college I want to branch out a little. And I feel like it’d be too narrow-minded of me to just do music in college. I want to do other things, like, maybe something in French because my mom speaks French and we’ve gone to France a bunch of times and I take French in school and I love French food. Or maybe even something in environmental science or agriculture because ever since I was a little kid I’ve been really interested in the environment and growing my own food, as lame as that sounds. I thought it was pretty cool. And as I got older I learned about environmental crises like global warming, world wide drought and everything. It’d be cool if I could do the world a kind of service and help with that.

Don’t Dwell on What Is Yet to Be

“Well, definitely for the rest of high school I’ll be playing a lot more in bands and actually I’m going to get a subway permit with [juniors] Andrew Chow and Jacob Sunshine to play in the subway, and we have an audition for that in May. And then if we get that, then we’ll be able to play in places like Grand Central, or Penn Station, and that’d be really cool.”

“Right now, I just want to have the best time of my life because I’m never going to be fifteen again.”

Aviva Hakanoglu, Composer and Violinist

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The Hustle

“I started out with violin but lately I’ve been doing more with composition. Now I’m at Julliard['s Pre College Division]. It’s my first year but I’ve been interested in composing before.”

“The main problem I have is balancing out violin and composing. Since violin has always been a part of my schedule, it’s been difficult integrating composing into that. Basically my Saturdays are dedicated to composing and my days on Sundays are dedicated to violin. And then the week is practicing and composing for that.”

“I’m interested in math, philosophy and physics. And I guess music is very, what do you call it, it’s not completely absurd that I’d like music given the combination of such things. They’re related.”

Back in the Day

“My parents were like, ‘Hey, we love instruments. Let’s get her a violin when she’s just four years old,’ and it went from there.”

“I can’t say I had the most say in picking what instrument I liked the most at four, but past that, I started enjoying music on and off towards the end of middle school. But then in high school I was like, ‘Oh, I should probably get to it because I really like this a lot.’”

So Why Not

“I’m sure for one thing that music is very important to me. Wherever I go for college, it has to have to have an amazing music program or I’ll be very angry. But I’m sure that I wouldn’t want to just go to a conservatory. I’m considering joint programs between a university and a conservatory to get a double major or something like that.”

“I guess the main thing is that I’ve had violin with me for all this time. If in college I limit myself to just music, then I’ll be stuck with it for the rest of my life. Like, I need an education in something that I’m driven in and something I want my main career to be. I don’t think I want to be a violinist or a composer just as my career. But, having it there is something really serious and something I enjoy. It’s relieving for whatever else I do. Like, how it is right now.”

But Don’t Get the Wrong Idea

“I wouldn’t really call [music] a hobby. A hobby sounds like, ‘Oh, I collect stamps.’ It’s like me. There you go. It’s me.”

Simply Said

“If music was the only thing I did, I wouldn’t be happy.”

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