As Sean Lee (11) gets ready to practice his violin once again, he takes out multiple excerpts to practice for a place in the California All-State Orchestra. After working on these excerpts for months on end, perfecting each detail to make the piece the best it can be, Lee peforms with precision and skill to the judges.
Despite having a love-hate relationship for the violin in his younger years, Lee didn’t learn to appreciate it until later in his orchestra career.
“I started playing in first grade, but I really hated it because my mom just forced me to do it and I was constantly forced to practice,” Lee said. “My love for violin came when I joined my youth orchestra in eighth grade and that’s when I started developing a passion for it.”
As he made his way into high school, he joined the orchestra band at Ayala. Ayala BAC’s Band Director Timothy Trost was able to see his growth and passion for music and his violin.
“He has always been dedicated to the violin,” Trost said. “This is his third year with us and he’s always been a dedicated member of the orchestra group.”
Now Lee continues to practice and perfect all of his music to keep at learning and exceeding his skill.
“I practiced the excerpts and scales about two hours per day and about another 1-2 hours everyday just on the given excerpts of music to increase my skill,” Lee said.
Lots of people have seen Sean Lee put much effort into reaching his dream goal. Among his support system, Eunsang Lee (11) was one of his best friends who went through it with him.
“He practices four hours a day and practices more than he actually sleeps,” Eunsang Lee said.
Throughout all Sean Lee’s hardships of practicing daily and putting in much effort, Ayala is very proud to say that for the first time ever, one of our talented orchestra players has made it to the California All-State Orchestra team.
“It felt so good [because] I worked on these excerpts for around three months to prepare for the orchestra and increase my skill,” Sean Lee said. “It was pretty satisfying when I got in at the end.”
