Sean Hsi, School of Music
Degree: Certificate in Music Performance
Hometown: Taipei, Taiwan
 

What brought you to DePaul?

It was my teacher, I-Hao Lee. I’ve known him since I was a kid, and I studied with him while I was at Juilliard. I studied for many years with him in New York, and then he moved here and started teaching at DePaul. When it came to my master's, I auditioned everywhere, but at that point, I'd been in New York for nine years. I needed a change, and I missed my teacher. I knew I'd learn so much more from him.

It was the right choice. Music is different from many undergraduate degrees, you spend your whole study with one teacher, you meet them once a week and you're very involved with your studio teacher. What matters most is the personal teaching styles of the great musicians who teach here at DePaul.

How do you connect with the DePaul community outside the classroom?

Being a music student is very different from any other major. If you come here late at night, 10 p.m., 11 p.m., there are still people in the practice rooms. We interact much more outside of rehearsal or class times, because you're practicing here. You can go into someone's room and ask, "Can you play for me? Can I play for you?" You're really sharing these practice spaces with those dedicated students who want to get better.

There is a strong sense of a group that moves forward together. You are trying your hardest to play your instrument better, spending hours and hours in a room trying to perfect the tiniest technique that an outside person probably wouldn't even notice. That spirit carries through and influences people. The students here are very supportive of each other. I think it starts with the faculty. They are very friendly and very supportive and are great musicians themselves. Everyone understands what you're going through.

What's your favorite memory from your time at DePaul?

It's hard to pick one. We have a great chamber music program, and my favorite memories are playing with my friends and my colleagues. I play in a string quartet, and there's something exhilarating about working on a piece of music together with four people, all working towards the same goal.

When we're performing those pieces and our hours of rehearsal pay off, those moments on stage, showcasing to audiences the result of our hard work and sharing the emotions, the soulfulness of the music we are bringing — those moments are always the best. I also love the individual, personalized lessons with my teacher, where I learn something new, or realize something new about myself that I can bring into my craft.

What advice would you give incoming students?

Work hard. More so than any other field, we don't have a finish line. There are no actual deadlines in music-making. You're always getting better. You come here late at night, even on the weekends, and there are still going to be a few people working their butts off just in a practice room.

You're like an athlete, except that you're working on the tiny muscles. It's precision, but it's muscle memory regardless, and you need to practice muscle memory. It really shows for the ones who work hard. By the time you're a senior, if you have practiced two hours more every day than your classmate, that's thousands and thousands of hours difference by the fourth year. And it shows.

The great musicians always say, if you don't love music, you shouldn't do it, because you're not going to make as much money, you're going to work more than other people, you're going to make less than other people. But if you love this, you've got to make it work. The people who are here late at night practicing all enjoy it. They enjoy being here at 11 p.m. on a Saturday, practicing the same thing for the 200th time. They enjoy it because they can hear it getting better. That's what makes great musicians happen.

What's next for you?

I'm doing a Doctor of Musical Arts program at Stony Brook University in Long Island. I'm going to be in a different place, but being a musician, I just want to keep doing what I've been doing here: working hard, practicing, playing with other people and performing.

It's a challenging profession, so usually you just see where the road takes you. You work hard, you hope for the best, and you don't let go of opportunities. I want to prepare myself, so if there is an opportunity, I can be ready and I don't want to miss it. I don't know where I will be in three years, and that kind of excites me. There are so many things I could be doing.

I want to keep playing better and get to know more people in this classical music world and outside of it and see where it takes me.