I started playing piano at the age of three.
Me and my three other siblings.
My parents were kind of looking really for a piano teacher for them.
And then the piano teacher was like, “Oh, why don't you just go ahead and, like,
put in the fourth one?
Because, I mean, might as well, right? Get all four of them in?”
They put me in, and I fell in love.
My first international piano competition
was here in the States at the age of five.
There was a division where it was 12 and under.
So there was no there was no minimum for the age.
The funny thing was, is that I was so short,
they had to bring out these portable foot pedals.
So because the pedals are so low,
my feet are up on this thing
and I'm playing the pedals
as I'm performing.
But I ended up placing third
in this international piano competition,
and that's where things kind of started to skyrocket.
The first time that I performed at Carnegie Hall
was at the age of 11, which was crazy for any 11 year old.
Just being so inspired and motivated to get there and thinking
that that was kind of, that would be the culmination
of my music career.
So for me, it was like life was at its peak
and then all of it just came crumbling down.
It was 4th of July weekend and we were out house hunting.
It was just weird because all of a sudden
I had immense amount of pain in my abdomen and I couldn't explain why.
So we went to the hospital.
They go through all the testing, try and figure out what I had.
Cut me open, took a look inside,
and he just noticed you have this tumor that's filled with fluid.
And since it's fluid on the inside, I don't want to touch it.
We're going to send you to a bigger hospital.
We ended up, you know, waiting for a couple more weeks as the
pathology department was, you know, looking at all the different things
and testing the biopsies that they ended up taking.
And I was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma cancer.
My dad got that phone call.
And I remember I just looked at him.
He looked at me and his his face was just very blank.
But I felt like I knew.
As a pianist, the one thing
that we really rely on is our hands and our fingers.
And one of the side effects of one of the drugs that I had
was I couldn't feel my fingertips anymore, let alone most of my fingers.
And so it became very, very hard to play.
Now that being said, it was wonderful because people got word
that I could play the piano.
And so the musical therapists ended up coming in with this keyboard.
This is where the
symphony supposed to play.
The door was always wide open.
The nurses would come around and they would listen to me or,
you know, the children, they'll be walking around
and they'll they'll see me or listen to me on the way by.
It became kind of a motivation or a drive for me
to get through what I was going through.
Because what I needed to do was, is I needed to take this God given talent
and really share it with people
and uplift people as much as I can and just show them, you know, what
we're capable of,
even when, you know, the world throws the worst haymaker at us.
Performing at Carnegie Hall is a wonderful experience.
Performing at the Kennedy Center is a wonderful experience.
You get to touch the lives of the audience that are there
that you have no idea who they are and they don't even know you.
But I think the more beautiful thing
about playing at the hospital was the fact that everyone's
struggling with something and your blatant aware of it.
You might still only know the tip of the iceberg,
but you know that things aren't
necessarily the way that you would like them to be.
And so for me, it was always it was always very, very special.
Coming out of cancer,
the one thing that I wanted to forget was cancer.
Like, I had no problem with playing piano,
but just talking about it was difficult.
It became my journey and my goal to do whatever I could
to share my story or, you know, share my gifts and abilities.
The overall struggles that I had with my hands and my fingers,
it was definitely a concern for me
in terms of whether or not I would be able to be at the same level that I
that I once was or being better than what I once was.
You know, that is much better now
after years of occupational therapy and physical therapy.
Do I still have complications?
Yes, I do.
But it's again, it could be a lot worse.
And I think that's kind of the way that I like to look at it.
It's very much glass half full or just the fact that, you know,
there is much worse that could be there.
When it came time to choose a college, the main reason why I came to
the Eastman School of Music was actually for my teacher.
Allan Chow has this wonderful reputation as a pianist, but also as a teacher.
He really allows students to love the music and love the history
behind the music.
And it's really helpful for me
‘cause he's not only helping me grow as a pianist and a musician,
but he's also helping me grow as a person in general.
James is really an intelligent musician and he has wonderful ears.
He has a really good sense of an emotional sort of response to the music,
but I think what for me is his primary characteristic is this intelligence
that underscores everything that he does.
I can only think that his bout
with cancer has, of course, influenced everything about his daily life.
That sense of not wanting to miss out on anything drives him
daily to keep going, to continue to hone his craft.
And the sense of always looking on the bright side, always looking forward,
contributes to his success in what he does here academically and musically.
In terms of Eastman in general, I love the community here.
It's so supportive.
The students here, the alumni here, there’s such a great connection
that we've been able to build with one another.
And it's all thanks to Eastman,
so I'll always be grateful for that.