While my classmates played tag and soccer during recess, I preferred to stay inside and play with the classroom’s Lego Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader minifigures and hum along with the themes of Star Wars. At home, I also kept to myself, and spent my time sitting at the piano trying to figure out the melodies from Harry Potter by ear. During these moments, I unknowingly experienced the spark that hinted at my calling: music was my way of expressing myself and connecting to the world.

 

I began taking piano lessons at 5 years old, and for my 12th birthday, I asked for a keyboard so I could learn how to make loops and create instrumental beats of pop songs I liked. My curiosity with music grew as I learned the tuba, joining the middle school band and youth orchestra. I also learned to improvise as a keyboardist through rock and jazz bands. I knew music was shaping me, and even back then, I was certain it would play a role in my life.

 

Storytelling also fascinated me. My weekends during middle school were spent venturing around the house to find construction paper, clay, and any materials to create worlds and characters for stop motion films. Some of my favorite videos were “the magical notebook”, “index card wars”, and “the stop motion maniacs” (an acapella group I animated by whiteboard which covered popular songs at the time). I also started my journals, in which I wrote entries for over 2,000 consecutive days. My English teacher always said in class, “there is a story in everything”, which stuck with me. I challenged myself to reflect on my day and try to carve out a story based on what I did and how I felt, even if it seemed mundane at first-glance. I could feel these early attempts at storytelling shaping me and teaching me lessons, just as music was doing.

 

At 16, I watched the film music documentary Score, and something clicked in my head. As I peered into the process of composing soundtracks – not just writing epic-sounding themes but searching deeper to find the soul of a world and creating new sounds and melodies that feel as if they’ve always belonged there – I saw how film scoring was a marriage of the two things I loved most, music and storytelling. I imagined scenes with and without music, and how profoundly powerful, visceral, and unforgettable they became with music. I remember thinking: “Damn. This would be the coolest job in the world” after watching Score. From that moment on, I set my heart on becoming a film composer. 

​

From that moment on, it was time to put my passion into action. I spent two years worth of savings on my first sound library, BBC Symphony by Spitfire, and started creating my first orchestral mockups, leaning on YouTube as a guide. For the first month, I gave myself a prompt for a new piece every day and let my imagination run wild. Prompts ranged from a frantic theme for a group of clowns to a funeral march for a bullfrog. At school, I was the leader of the film club, and searched for any angle to work with the filmmakers. I scored for whatever projects they were working on and these turned into my first collaborations. My favorite score during high school followed the story of a young girl who literally transforms into a monster the more she uses social media. My approach started out with the orchestra and gradually added in electronic elements to mirror the transformations from human to monster. I discovered that by combining synthesizers and orchestral elements, I could more convincingly capture the range of terror and tenderness displayed visually. The score ended up receiving a nomination for best score in the High School All-American Film Festival, which propelled me to continue experimenting and trying new things in my scores. 

 

With the goal to connect my interest in technology and music, I used my time at Stanford to explore applications of music, using computers. In addition to orchestration and rhythm courses, I was especially drawn to computer music at CCRMA (center for computer music research and acoustics). I have come to appreciate how authentic synthesizers can sound with respect to their expressiveness and timbre. With these technological improvements come the potential to expand our range of sounds and the ability to make music more accessible. I am learning how artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies can be incorporated into the creative process and build tools and products which can be used in a variety of real world scenarios. 

 

Beyond the thrill of being part of the Hollywood community, pushing the boundaries of music technology and bonding with like-minded creators, what gives me the most joy is seeing the effect my music has on others. It’s my way of baking cookies, making a card, knitting a sweater or giving a friend a fist bump.