“Cellist Jeffrey Li, a 28-year-old 2018 Aspen Music Festival and School student, also happens to be a full-time software engineer at Google,” writes Andrew Travers in Thursday’s (7/26) Aspen Times (CO). “This spring, Li earned a master’s degree in music from the Juilliard School after two wild bi-coastal years…. Li used saved-up vacation time in order to spend four weeks in intensive cello study in Aspen this summer. While working on his master’s, Li would twice weekly take red-eye flights … bouncing between his classical music world of Juilliard in Manhattan and the tech realm of Google in Mountain View, California.… This summer in Aspen, Li met [conductor] Yuga Cohler … who also works as a software engineer. ‘There are a few of us out there,’ Li said. Li … went back to work in California this week…. In Aspen, Li said his experience here has been transformative…. Performing Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 with the Aspen Festival Orchestra … ‘I remember one thing [conductor Robert Spano] said—I will take it with me forever,’ … he recalled. ‘It’s: “Fix not by insisting but by listening.” This isn’t said enough and it goes a long way when done correctly.’ ”
Posted July 27, 2018
