He switched to CU’s College of Music when music proved to be the only major that brought together his passion and interests. Millar started out in engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. “In music school, we’re learning how to learn and how to adapt in the world,” he says. Michael Millar, director of the Center for Community Engagement at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, is quick to describe himself as a “non prodigy.” He credits majoring in music with teaching him to be an achiever (he’s got a BM and an MA in Music Performance, and a DMA in Performance and Arts Administration). Their insights are invaluable for students, parents, music teachers, college guidance counselors, and current music majors as well. From that point on, everything turned explored this subject with three musicians, each of whom is working in a distinctly different field of music. That day I told my father what he'd been waiting to hear - that I wanted to study with a new teacher. I didn't want to, but as I placed my fingers on the piano's keys, I realized I could show other people that I had talent after all. Sure enough, the day came at school when my teacher asked me to play some holiday songs. For the next two weeks I didn't touch the piano. I didn't want to be a pianist anymore, I decided. "You will never be a pianist." And one day, she "fired" me. My new teacher in Beijing didn't like me. I was miserable 7, but not from the poverty or pressure. Imagine! During the coldest nights, while I practiced piano, my father would lie in my bed so it would be warm when I was tired. It was an hour-and-a-half trip each way, and I was a heavy boy, much heavier than I am as an adult. We lived far from my school, and since the bus was too expensive, my father would "drive" me on his bicycle every day. My father cooked, cleaned and looked after me. The only apartment we could find for the money we had was in an unheated building, with five families sharing one bathroom. To the others around us, we spoke 5 with funny northern accents. Suddenly my father and I were newcomers - outsiders. In America, people often move and start over. Can you live without your mother?" I said, "I want my mother!" But I knew I needed to be in Beijing. They both warned me, "Being a pianist is hard. He quit his concertmaster's job, which he loved, and my mother stayed behind in Shenyang to keep working at her job at the science institute to support us. To relocate to Beijing with me, he made a great sacrifice. But music is still music, he added, and it exists to make us happy. Millions of pianists in China were vying 4(竞争) for fame. My father, who played the erhu, a two-stringed instrument, knew that life wouldn't be easy. To be a serious musician, I would have to move to Beijing, one of our cultural capitals. That's when my parents and my teacher decided 3 I was too much for such an instrument - and for our hometown. Later my parents bought me a Swedish piano, but I broke half the strings 2 on it playing Tchaikovsky(柴可夫斯基). At first I played on clunky(难听的) Chinese keyboards - cheap, but the best we could afford. My mother, Xiu-lan Zhou, taught me to read notes, and my father, Guo-ren Lang, concertmaster(首席小提琴手) of a local folk orchestra 1(管弦乐队), showed me how to control the keys. As a boy growing up in Shenyang, China, I practiced the piano six hours a day.
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