Leung has always been surrounded by music.
Steven Leung – Orchestra
From laying under the piano as a young child, to playing symphonies with world renowned artists, new orchestra teacher, Steven Leung is well versed in the arts.
Growing up, Lueng was always surrounded by the arts. Having a classically trained pianist as a mother, he found music in his daily routine. After learning piano, Leung’s curiosity found violin at the age of eight. Leung believes that was pretty late, but still pursued and found a love for the instrument. He now has his own private studio where he teaches students of all ages, starting at the age of three. “The prerequisite for them is, they have to be potty trained. If they are, they’re ready to go” Leung said.
Prior to finding BSM, he received his masters from Rice University and accompanied many well known orchestras and symphonies. One of his favorite memories includes a two week European tour with the New World Symphony, traveling all across the continent, as well as accompanying Yoyo Ma (15 time grammy winner) in the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Taking the time to travel allowed him to find his passion for teaching. After heading a summer orchestra program here, Lueng applied for a teaching position. He’s excited to work with the students and has found success so far.
The pressure for excellence is always apparent in his field of work, but he isn’t stressed. “Embrace all that life has to offer. There’s going to be sour notes and there’s gonna be wonderful brilliant ones as well. There’s no straight shot, especially in the arts, so take a breath and just know everything will end up alright,” Leung said.
Em Paquette wears no makeup
The hardest thing for me during this assignment was to stay positive and be myself. For the past six years, my security blanket has been my 30-minute morning routine of mascara, concealer, and foundation, and without it, I found myself looking at the floor, avoiding eye contact, and feeling completely naked. This week was a moment I had been fearing for almost half of my life, a week in which I would have no protection from the judgmental hallways of high school.
From an early age, I learned that as a woman in modern society, the definition of beauty wasn’t your physical character, but rather what you could do to cover it up. I had adapted to that, becoming almost dependent on my products. While makeup boosted my self-esteem, it trapped me to never be able to leave my house without it. As I tried to end my dependency, the hardest day was most definitely the first. Even though I was taking out a half-an-hour of makeup from my routine, I still left the house late. Most of my morning was well spent standing in front of the mirror, not able to leave the small room that consumed all of my fears and doubts.
On that first day, my thought process was all over the place, and it became noticeable to my friends. “She was on edge and nervous all day, you could see her eyes flickering from one person to the next, wondering if they had noticed,” senior Jack Gables said. As the day had gone by though, I had seemed to forget about it. Until that is, when I went to the bathroom and was quickly reminded how different I looked.
While my week was full of negatives, whenever I found a positive it surely brightened my day. After a few days, my mind began to forget the bareness of my face. The days became easier, and I was able to sleep in later and have no issue leaving on time anymore. Before, it had been a burden to perfect my makeup, but now it was just the ease of slipping out of my bed and walking out the door within 20 minutes.
Yet, I still dealt with the worries and fear of what people thought of me, which all flashed back to one memory from sixth grade, which was the last time I had ever gone to school bare, when a kid laughed at how tired I looked. Yet this week, no matter how tired I looked, or how insecure I got, my face stayed bare. This week wasn’t just something for the newspaper, I did this for myself, and I dare any person out there who is insecure like I am to do the same. I dare you to go bare for a week, show the world who you really are, human.