Exploring new passions, embracing the unknown, and ending up in an improved version of life — On a Saturday afternoon in late September 2019, I felt the urge to turn on Brahms’ Fourth Symphony while cleaning my apartment. I hadn’t listened to orchestral music recreationally in a while. I listened to the stormy first movement while attending to my chores somewhat listlessly, all the while feeling…

Design going beyond aesthetics, leadership that kills creativity, and pipe dreams waiting to become real — The first time I watched the show Abstract: The Art of Design, a Netflix docuseries featuring accomplished designers from several design disciplines, I was captivated by the episode featuring Ilse Crawford, an English interior designer. It seems that interior design is often known as an aesthetic discipline, but what inspired…

Transcending an all-or-nothing mindset, seeing worth beyond our achievements, and making it — I once played in a master class in my hometown during my sophomore year of high school. A bunch of woodwind musicians from my youth orchestra gathered in a small classroom filled with chairs and desks pushed to one side to play for a local professional flutist who was later…

Mixed messages, an industry built to resist change, and realizations that life is bigger than music — My first clarinet teacher in high school was of Italian heritage, and upon meeting me, he realized that I have an Italian last name. It turns out that due to my paternal lineage, I’ve inherited an Italian last name, despite being probably only 10% Italian. After explaining that to him…

I always had a sneaking suspicion that the path that I knew to be right was wrong. I just didn’t know that I would be okay if I left it. Jun 2009–Aug 2013: deciding On June 20, 2009, when I was 16, I showed up with my clarinet to Interlochen Arts Camp, a six-week…

Understanding the people for whom you are creating before you create — This is an expansion on some ideas I wrote about last year in a post called What orchestras need to learn from Airbnb and Apple. Since then, I’ve studied the innovation strategies of several successful companies and talked with people who are implementing such strategies, both in the for-profit and…

Spaghetti forks, grocery carts, and the classical music experience that is falling behind — twirling spaghetti is hard It’s always sliding off my fork. This must be solved, so here’s my idea––I am going to build a fork that will drastically improve the experience of twirling spaghetti. It has a front attachment that clamps down after you twirl by pressing a lever with your thumb. Amazing. …

The tipping point for classical music — In the twentieth century, people went to concert halls to hear the greatest classical music performed by orchestras like the New York Philharmonic or Boston Symphony. My parents are Baby Boomers and many of their friends, upon hearing I’m a musician, tell me their parents took them to orchestra concerts…

I lived in a box for four years. In the chaos of this world, a little practice room with stained carpet and decades-old curtains and unflattering light was my haven. The is where I had my most magical learning moments. …