2022 PLV Scholarship Winner: Theodore Thai on Pursuing His Love of Music
This year, I decided to award the PLV Scholarship to three recipients in honor of what would have been my mother Patricia’s 70th birthday. Each of these three winners embodies the heart of my scholarship program, as each has transformed personal stories of hardship into new narratives of growth. As my scholarship recipients enter adulthood, they carry with them hard-earned wisdom born of experience that can be used to lift up others on their own journeys. This blog provides a platform on which they can share their stories.
Without further ado, I am proud to announce Theodore Thai as the first of this year’s three PLV Scholarship recipients. Theo is a musician who plays clarinet and piano. He was part of the Mission Viejo High School Symphony Orchestra, Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band, and Marching Band, as well as numerous other bands. He was one of the few high school musicians chosen to play with Chapman University’s Honor Band, leading the clarinet section. Check out this video of Theo playing clarinet.
Although Theo has been an artist of music for years, he faced pushback from family members who encouraged him to pursue something more “practical,” like engineering or computer science. But Theo’s heart simply wasn’t in it, and his high school years were a journey of personal exploration leading to the moment when he realized he was a musician — when he played Schubert’s Impromptu Op. 90 No. 3 in G-flat major, D. 899 during a private piano lesson. To Theo, music is a gateway to the broad array of emotions and internal experiences that define our human existence. While practical pursuits are both noble and necessary for human society to function, art has a way of transporting us to realms of memory, imagination, and hope for the future.
From my own high school days, I recall vividly the pressure to be everything: “well-roundedness” was the creed of the aspiring graduate. We were encouraged to challenge ourselves with AP and honors classes, join clubs, volunteer, attain leadership roles, play a sport, pick up an instrument, learn a foreign language, attend dances and sporting events, be a social butterfly, crush a battery of standardized tests, and maintain a GPA above a 4.0. One of the things that appealed to me most about applying to university in the United Kingdom was the greater acceptability of specializing in one or two key subject areas, as I believe it encouraged greater genuineness; students were more likely to pursue extracurriculars and devote application essays to topics that resonated with their authentic selves rather than merely create a wide-ranging list of impressively diverse activities.
Theo’s scholarship application was striking for how it illuminated the intensity and purity with which he has dedicated himself to the pursuit of music, his primary interest: it enlivens and inspires him as he develops his artistic voice and expression. In short, his essay had a lot of heart and reflected a true passion for music and art more broadly, which is reflected in his written interview.
Theo In His Own Words
What are some of the ways that your status as a first-generation Vietnamese American has shaped you?
Theo: My status as a first-generation Vietnamese American has always been a difficult one. Growing up, I remember when I was picked on at school for looking different than everyone else: different hair color, different skin color, and different facial features. Not to mention my inadequate English, feeling out of place, and of course, high pressure to succeed. Instead of trying to fit in, I decided to be myself, be my own person. I did not need to dye my hair or fix anything about my face. I should not have felt the need to change anything about me. As soon as I realized this, I became more confident, more assured. I was able to make friends and formed strong bonds that could last a lifetime. I learned that I don’t need to conform to any standard when I could just be who I was meant to be. Bobs would be Bobs and Marys would be Marys. Me, well… I could just be me!
Can you tell us about when you first knew you wanted to become a musician?
Theo: In one piano lesson I had with my private teacher, I played for him Schubert’s Impromptu Op. 90 No. 3 in G-flat major, D. 899 after laboriously practicing. It is a gorgeous piece of art. Imagine a Saturday night, wrapped warm and cozy with a blanket and a mug of hot cocoa, topped off with graceful raindrops dancing on the window… All of that just to be ripped away, as one wakes up back to the reality of evil, war, poverty, the list goes on. But despite all the darkness, we hope and strive for better days anyway, because that’s all we can do, even if it seems like we are too little to make an impact. While I was playing this piece for him, I went on a magnificent journey, and that is something I want my audience to experience as well. I thought to myself, “Ever since growing up, my teachers, uncles, and aunts have asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.” This was a question I always struggled to answer, but at that moment while playing the Schubert, I realized that I was a musician.
We understand you were encouraged to study something practical at university, like engineering or computer science. What inspired you to pursue your passion for music instead, and what advice would you give to help others discover what they would like to pursue?
Theo: Technology was growing very rapidly at the time when I was growing up. I would be exposed to the news and how a piece of machinery malfunctioned, causing workers to die, or a rogue wave who swept a loved one out to the depths of the sea. This instilled in me a desire to live life to the fullest, and cherish every day. Ever since I was young, I thought that since everyone had one shot at life, why not live my life the way I wanted to, knowing that I could die any day anyway? My advice for those who don’t know what they want to be yet: list your favorite subjects, and then find possible careers in those subjects. Talk to people in that field and see if that’s what you’d want to do. Maybe even ask them how they found out they wanted to work in that field. Put yourself out there, figure it out now so that down the road, you could do something you enjoy. Be realistic, but also a little optimistic. Have a backup plan, maybe even a backup to the backup. I feel the best thing to strive for is something you can enjoy but make good money doing. If it doesn’t work out, you have your backup plan, and you could do the other thing as a hobby. Once you’ve done your investigation, you can make your plan of how to get the job that you want, which should be easier now since you’ve thoroughly explored possible careers. The earlier the better. If you go into high school knowing what you want to be, you can do internships or take classes at your local junior college, or maybe your high school has a program for the field you want to work in. When I considered music as a career choice, I recall people saying “it’s not a stable career” or “it’s one in a million.”
To figure out the reality, I decided to ask my private music instructors, public school music teachers, and music professors. I learned that you can make a living with music, and understood what it meant to be a musician. A musician is sort of like a car: cars have multiple parts and you need all those parts to have a decent car. Same thing with being a musician, there are multiple parts. At least in the classical side of music, some parts include education, performance, composition, conducting, theory, music history, analysis, and arranging and orchestration. This is what being a classical musician entails, and like with the car, once you have all those parts, you can be a decent musician making a decent salary. Even though music may not be as “practical,” once I started talking and listening to experts in the field, I knew the truth and that “it’s not a stable career” and “it’s one in a million” were incorrect. At that point, it was clear that I knew I wanted to pursue music.
In your essay, you said, “I feel that there are some necessities in life […] but I feel that art, beauty, and love are reasons for people to live.” Can you elaborate more on this idea?
Theo: I took inspiration from the movie Dead Poets Society when writing that sentence. It is the scene where Robin Williams gets his students to huddle around him and he teaches them that “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” I feel that Williams is correct. At the end of the day, you need money to live and that requires a job of some sort, but after the work day is over, you can enjoy yourself with love and art. Sometimes we may be too caught up in our work and be on autopilot mode after having the same routine day in and day out. We may forget to live and have fun. Everyone may be the same in regards to working a job and providing for oneself and loved ones, but you can express yourself through art, and be who you truly are. Life would be mundane and lifeless without art, and this is where art is different from those “noble pursuits.” It provides an outlet where one can express themselves to make their own and others’ lives around them less dull and ordinary. In this day and age, some may be focusing so much on their jobs, trying to earn more and more money to buy a fancy car or the next big thing, forgetting what’s really important in life. Some may forget to spend time with their family because they are set on purchasing the new sports car, or neglecting to enjoy a hobby they once had because they are too busy buying a new watch. I feel this quote helps everyone remember that although everyone needs to be able to support themselves, to never forget to love and express themselves through art.
What three things does the world need more of?
Theo: Love, action, and happiness. Love is something all humans need. Love can make us feel accepted and understood. It makes us feel like we belong even though we may have a different skin color. Love can unite nations all across the world, and has the power to make the world a better place. War, poverty, evil, are some of the major problems in our society. Action helps to overcome this. With the help of love, we can unite and forgive. Once we ourselves take action, our friends and families can take action, expanding and uniting more and more until entire nations can come together and solve the world’s problems. Happiness has the ability to spread like wildfire, uplifting many hearts. It can help us be more positive and be less stressed. A happy person is like a ray of sunshine, radiating vibrant energy to all living things. The combination of these three can change the world for the better
Theo is excited to be starting as a Music major at Cal State Long Beach this fall.
