From: Medford, OR
Age: 24
Instrument: Guitar/Composition
School: University of Southern California, MM Composition
Favorite Drink: Peach Iced Tea with Baileys and Amarreto
"For me most of my struggles have just been managing time and learning how to say, “no”. I’m still not very good at that. There’s so many things where I want to help lots of people with lots of different things. It’s difficult for me to prioritize and make sure that I remember that I’m here for composition and I want to compose first. It’s hard though, because I still need to make money and buy groceries and pay rent, so it’s just balancing everything. It’s just an ongoing thing, trying to figure out how much time I should spend on each thing. I don’t think it’ll ever get easier either, I think it’ll actually get harder."
How do you define inspiration and motivation? Do you feel that they are related?: "Let me think about that. I think there is definitely some sort of relation there. A lot of times, just for me, I find inspiration in listening to other music. I guess that’s just sort of the spark to get things going, it’s the coming up with an idea for a piece. It’s totally related to motivation, wanting to go out to practice, wanting to drink a cup of coffee and sit for 4 hours writing stuff out and trying things. I think there’s definitely a correlation between the two."
Advice to others: "Things that I have found, subjectively, that work for me are coffee, but planning out when and where you’re going to drink it. If you’re going to drink 4 cups of coffee right before bed, that’s probably not the best. Also, if you can sleep 8 hours in a night, that’s great. I also watch what I eat too. Eating a whole pizza sometimes will make you feel like crap for a whole day, but eating something more substantial like beans and rice makes you feel so much better."
Quote/Mantra: “In the beginning I looked around but couldn’t find the car I dreamt of, so I decided to build it myself.”-Ferry Porsche
Charity/Cause: Likes to buy gift cards to Subway to hand out to the homeless
Do you think that inspiration has anything to do with success?: "I think it definitely does, but only a part of it. I think inspiration is definitely a crucial part, because you need that spark of creativity, but so much of it is dedication and being motivated to getting the work done. Because even if I’m inspired to write a cool orchestra piece, I haven’t done it yet and I need to find the time to be motivated to really make that happen. I think it’s super important, but it’s just the first step. So much of it has to do with making connections, and working really hard and getting along with people and finding time to get it done. Success is different for different people, but for me it’s writing a piece where the performers say how fun it is and the audience thinks that it’s so cool that they want to hear it again."