On taking a hard left

The following is excerpted from the Facebook post I used to announce my career change to my friends.

In 2005, I came to USC, fresh out of Interlochen, and I was a starry-eyed young musician who was ready to start in Los Angeles and become rich, famous, and beloved the world over as a classical musician.

In 2009, I graduated from USC, and my first real-world gig was as accompanist for the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, a beloved job I would keep for six years.

It’s 2016, and when I look back on the past seven years of my life as a freelance musician, I am grateful for all the opportunities that the universe has sent my way, and I proud of the work I’ve done. I’ve played piano for Audra McDonald, LeAnn Rimes, and Melissa Manchester. I’ve worked with incredible ensembles, sung for visionary directors, and had the chance to work with music whose composition represents, to me, the pinnacle of human achievement (J.S. Bach and Stephen Sondheim make that short list).

In seven years, I've grown up a little, and so too have those stars in my eyes. Make no mistake, though: I'm still just as much of a dreamer as I ever was. Heck, I just started a whole new choir two years ago. The L.A. Choral Lab is my proudest achievement as a musician and I hope to still be conducting it when I need a walker to help me get on to the stage.

What has changed about my starry-eyed, unbridled optimism over the past seven years, though, can be encapsulated in a few facts I’ve learned about how the world works.
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• What we want out of life will change over time. And that’s okay. The greatest wisdom is the ability to let go of old versions of ourselves in order to embrace the self that presents itself right here and now.
• Just because some activity sounds compelling in a 30-second elevator pitch doesn’t mean that it’s something you’ll want to be doing 40 hours a week as a way of making your living. You have to find a living that sustains and satisfies you on a typical Wednesday at 1:00 PM, both when you first start doing it, and five years in, as well.
• It doesn’t matter how many people say you are blessed, or lucky, to do what you do. You are the one who is living the day-to-day reality of your life, so ultimately, your take on your life is the only one that matters.

Maybe I’m scratching a seven-year itch. Maybe I’m making a hard, screeching left on the road of life. Maybe I’m embarking on an interesting two-year scenic route. Or maybe I’m simply doing what Yogi Berra suggested: I’m coming to a fork in the road, and I’m taking it. Whatever I’m doing, I’m thrilled to announce that I have officially enrolled as a student at Southwestern Law School’s two-year SCALE JD program. I start coursework in seven weeks, and in May 2018, I will be ready to take the California Bar Exam and start working as a lawyer.

I intend to continue to nurture and grow the L.A. Choral Lab throughout law school and into my new career. I have begun the process of phasing out the rest of my gigs and musical engagements so that when June 13 comes I can focus my energy on learning the ins and outs of a field that is brand new, and very exciting, to me.
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My intention, at the moment, is to bring my musical experience with me by focusing on intellectual property and entertainment law. But who knows if that will change as I explore the field and learn about what my options are.

OK, back to practicing the St. John Passion. In a beautiful, albeit perhaps slightly cruel, twist of fate, my final performance as accompanist for the St. John Passion with the Pasadena Master Chorale is on June 12, one day before my first class at Southwestern.