Why music? - by Andrew Wu - flights of fantasy

On May 14th, 2025, I performed four piano pieces in my friend Holden Mui’s composition recital. I consider playing Holden’s music to be the most important project I’ve undertaken thus far. This (entirely self-contained) blog post—a collection of snapshots, short and long, funny and sad, personal and universal, which incorporates the most important details from the other parts of the Endnote sequence and much, much more—forms a sort of thesis for my life. I recommend listening to this playlist as you read. June 2018 Moments before my 11th-grade solo recital, I sit alone in a cramped, dimly-lit dressing room behind Kunen Recital Hall. Lost in thought, I drift six years back. When I was eleven, having already studied seven years of piano, I began my lessons with Irena Orlov, a white-haired, bright-eyed woman with a quirky smile. She taught like an Irena, not a “Mrs. Orlov” or “Dr. Orlov” or “Professor Orlov.” That day, she taught me that to play a beautiful melody one must first sing it—a

On May 14th, 2025, I performed four piano pieces in my friend Holden Mui’s composition recital. I consider playing Holden’s music to be the most important project I’ve undertaken thus far. This (entirely self-contained) blog post—a collection of snapshots, short and long, funny and sad, personal and universal, which incorporates the most important details from the other parts of the Endnote sequence and much, much more—forms a sort of thesis for my life. I recommend listening to this playlist as you read. June 2018 Moments before my 11th-grade solo recital, I sit alone in a cramped, dimly-lit