JONES/LU
ANDREW LU Serina Nguyen
“There is a video of myself, around the age of four, standing on a chair and using a chopstick to conduct my 6 year old brother, who is playing the violin,” Andrew Lu (‘15) recalls. As a flutist, conductor, and composer at Palo Alto High School, Lu can be seen at many of the school rallies conducting the band, in the orchestra pit during some of the Paly musical theatre performances, and across the street assistant-conducting the Stanford Savoyards. Growing up in a family of music enthusiasts, Lu has been exposed to music nearly his entire life. His mother is a piano teacher, his brother practiced the violin and the clarinet and his father listens to a variety of music genres. Lu’s music career began early on at the age of four when he learned to play the piano. He then picked up the flute at the age of nine and his first opportunity conducting was back in eighth grade, when he and his friend put together a version of Bohemian Rhapsody for a group of ten players. Additionally, since his freshman year of high school, Lu has been taking classes with Eric Kujawski, music director at the Redwood Symphony and has found opportunities to conduct at the Paly band and theatre and outside of school for the Stanford Savoyards. When Lu conducted for the “Stinky Cheese Man”, the director Tony Kienitz offered him the chance to write alongside Emil Ernstrom and direct music for a “‘Twas Brillig”, a musical to be performed at Theatre Near U in Mountain View in June. “There are not a lot of opportunities out there. They do not come to you; you have to go and get them,” Lu explains. Furthering his music career, Lu looks forward to pursuing music in college as a flute performance major as well as a music performance major.
photography by Serina Nguyen
Visit his website for more information and upcoming perfomances: www.bronard.com [15]