PARADISE MODE

Prelude

Music has been my passion for almost all of my life.

I loved learning about new pieces, whether I knew I could play them now or I would add them to my repertoire later. I remember my first recital when I played Minuet in G Major by Bach, being my first "real" piece that I've ever performed, and that was probably a catalyst to my liking of classical music and the conservation of it. At that time, I was eight years old, still a beginner in my piano journey, but I improved a lot when I became older, speeding through piano at an advanced speed.

Eight years later, in my sophomore year of high school , I performed two of my favorite etudes at a recital, Chopin's Torrent Etude and Rachmaninoff's Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. I was working on a few etudes my instructor recommended, and those two seemed like the best pieces for a concert. Studying etudes was hard yet fun; it was difficult, but I enjoyed every moment of it. Because of these etudes, I excelled at the piano, boosting my dexterity, technique, and performance, but piano wasn't what I wanted to pursue in music. I always wanted to make my own set of etudes for other pianists to use to increase their abilities; I always wanted to make sonatas that give riveting and intriguing concert performances. I loved composing my own music, and there was one piece that I continually composed over a couple of years, because I wanted it to be my greatest piece ever.

This piece was my nameless piano concerto, a concerto that was written after everything had happened.

In order for it to be my greatest piece, I wanted to compose sections of it as life goes on, reflecting how I feel in my life, but I ended up composing two movements of it during one specific period of my life. I started composing this concerto in my junior year at Berklee; every single time I would feel an immense amount of emotion, whether it be sorrow, love, hope, or peace, I would sit at the piano and write, capturing what I felt in that moment in music. At that time I loved composing my piano concerto, and when I graduated from Berklee, I was completely done with the first movement. Though after college I didn't just sit and compose all day; I actually performed in concerts, whether it was me playing works by classical composers or other instrumentalists playing works that I've compose. I even performed my favorite piano concerto, Chopin's No. 1 in E Minor, which was something I had looked forward to for a while. Through my works and my stage performances, I started to become more and more well-known in the classical music community, and because of my popularity, a love started to brew. A love that I'll never forget.

Often times, I would make new friends from the orchestra I would play with, but I made one connection that was a huge part in my life. She played the violin, being globally known, and her passion for the violin was astounding, almost to the point where it was an obsession. Her favorite composer was Vivaldi, even though we both agreed upon how we didn't really like the Baroque period, and when she would go on tour with the orchestra to perform Vivaldi concertos, she always got to do her favorite set every single time they did the four seasons, Winter. Her favorite movement was the third movement, saying that it reminded her of the times she would walk in the snow-covered woods or in the white crested city gazing at the beauty winter can bring. We relived those memories during all the winters we were together, giving me her interpretation of music. I would never forget her. My entire piano concerto was completed because of her, even to the point where I dedicated the concerto to her. I had fallen in love with a woman whose capabilities were unknown to me. I was blinded by love, not knowing what would happen in the future, and I truly wish we could redo everything that happened.

She was admirable though, I can give her that. She would spend so much energy and passion working hard, doing what she had to do, and she balanced everything in her life so that she wasn't just a violinists who practices for 10 hours a day everyday of the year. When she wasn't practicing, we often just talked about anything all through the night, staring at the ceiling in my bed pondering through what was on our minds. I loved spending time with her, talking, and even getting to compose music with her.

But this isn't your typical romance story. This is a story filled with years of love, hope peace, toil, hardship, sorrow, and sadness. The years that allowed me to create what was then my unnamed "greatest piece", but soon to be piece that I'll never forget writing.

This is the story behind my beautiful piano concerto

[PARADISE MODE]