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I started playing the cello two years ago when I was 12 years old. Before learning how to play the instruments, I had never dug into the classical music world. I have never (with clear memory) gone to an orchestra performance. But soon after learning the instrument, I found an interest in music, joining competitions/performances, and going to concerts. The cello has shaped a majority of my musical identity.

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Minuet by L. Boccherini was the first piece of music I ever performed in front of people. I performed it at a cello summer camp in Qingdao. I like how the piece has a Baroque style and a dramatic style.

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Minuet by Boccherini (Cello Play Along) | Suzuki Cello Book 3

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The first music competition I ever attended was as a member of a cello ensemble. We played Over the Rainbow by Harold Arlen. As my first ever played ensemble, this shaped my music identity by giving me a sense of what an ensemble should be like. The gentle lyricism of the piece deeply moved me and showed me how a group of musicians can come together to perform something that is much greater than the sum of its parts. The smooth transitions and the flow of the music inspired my musical taste.

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Over the Rainbow - Harold Arlen | String Quartet [Best Version]

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The first ever music concert I have been to was the Mischa Maisky concert in 2023. He played Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Major, Op. 33 by Saint-Saëns, one of the most famous cello concertos. I loved the richness of the melody and Maisky's energetic style. His rich and warm tone is supported by his liberal use of vibrato, fascinated me. This concert was the first time I had ever heard an orchestra play, and it has deeply inspired me.

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Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1 | Gautier Capuçon, Gábor Takács-Nagy and the VFCO

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I grew up and lived in Shanghai before moving to Singapore. Shanghai is known for its openness to Western culture. When I lived in Shanghai, I was exposed to music like Western classical music, jazz, and pop, but I was also exposed to Chinese traditional music. The two blended in perfectly, where Western music was played with Chinese traditional instruments and the other way around. An artist called Tan Dun is famous for doing that; one of his most famous pieces was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which perfectly blends Western orchestration with Chinese instruments. That definitely shaped my music identity.

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Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Soundtrack - Tan Dun

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I began playing piano at the age of 5, but I soon stopped playing it at the age of 8 due to my worsening eyesight. Though it was a short period of time and I was still very young, the journey of piano gave me a music foundation, where I was exposed to the rich sound of the instrument. To this day, I still feel like a concerto is missing that key feature whenever it doesn't feature piano.