June 8, 2024 - Graduating Seniors

When I really reflect on what we are doing, there is no way to measure the success of our program unless you look at the composers who have been with us over multiple years.

When Luke started in 2022, his music was framed in the way he wanted it. (In one of his first private sessions, he defined how jazz was constructed for me.)

But this is a lot of students when they come in. We stopped panicking about this because we now know that there will be growth and evolvement all the way. (Look at Jordan and Lundy, Christopher Lee, or the other Lee kids.)

Luke was curious, and he had an incredibly supportive family who really loved where Luke was, but also knew Inception would help him grow.

I lost a colleague over Luke, but it was important that we chose education and all those things I talk about.... collaboration, leadership, accepting feedback, etc. Instead of saying a kid is unteachable, we have to figure out a way to reach him.

Luke's Inception journey coincided with Austin's arrival. The two bonded over jazz, the music writing software, Dorico, and lots of love of similar composers. I only had one concentrated time with Luke, when Austin went to Italy for the summer, and I got to mentor on Luke's String Quintet.

Rob, Luke's dad, and Austin arranged for two of his pieces to be recorded at UCLA when I went down with health issues, and Jonathan conducted (and Austin played trumpet on) Luke's "Claymore" with Milton Nelson's Flight 584 Big Band.

Fall of 2023, my inbox was filled with requests for recommendation letters for Luke for music programs across the country. And in his final year with us, Luke continued to write, composing the most pieces, and having the broadest range of all of our composers.

Luke goes to Indiana University in the Fall in music composition. Boy, did we reach him, and did he ever prove me right! Believe in your students' potential if you can't see the it-factor right now.

Justin Lee has always been steeped in music history. In the first piece he ever worked on with us, he wanted to transition from Gregorian Chants on through to Contemporary while moving through the Circle of Fifths in variations.

Justin has always been incredibly cerebral, and when he first arrived, he was so dug in on this concept that we worried his younger brother, Jason, was outshining him. EXCEPT our strings recording rolled around, and Justin quickly produced a well composed, well orchestrated string quintet.

What came to light was that Justin had a great familiarity with many of the instruments and with his music knowledge, he was really trying to push the boundaries of what he knew.

In the Spring of 2022, Justin and his mother, Jean, asked if he could give back to Inception by teaching a music history class to the Ear Training kids. His brother was teaching intervals every other week. Why not?

Justin started with Gregorian Chants and moved through Renaissance music. His lectures were well thought out and researched.

In the Fall of 2022, with the change in personnel, Justin moved over to the main composition class, and, pun intended, history was born! Justin leaves for Stanford this fall (2024).

Click on the image below to link to the music history page or CLICK HERE for small sample.