[PHOTOSTORY 2: ADITL] A Day In the Life of a music composition masters student preparing for his graduate recital

 

Faye Chu (right) is heading to his first music rehearsal of the day with his cello and his girlfriend Mary Mason (left) is coming with him.
Faye is in his last year of graduate school at Georgia Southern as a music composer, and is also a cellist, so he'll be playing his own compositions for his recital. 

Faye is laughing at a joke his girlfriend Mary just told him. 
"Why is a cello better than a violin? It burns longer",  joked Mary. 

Cat Chu, Faye's brother, is playing in a few of Faye's ensembles for his recital. 
Cat went to Georgia Tech for engineering but kept up violin throughout college because he enjoyed it so much. 

Cat is practicing one of Faye's pieces called "Dialetic Strings"
Faye composed this piece and wants it to sound like a conversation between all the players.

Mia Passmore (left) is playing the viola in this ensemble, is working on a section in the Dialetic piece with Faye. 
Faye put in some tricky rhythms and is helping Mia understand them. 

Mia is showing a cool improvisation section off to Faye.

 Faye is inspired to edit her part and add it in for her. 

Mia laughs because Faye messes up on the rhythm he's trying to demonstrate to her.
"I guess it's easier to write it then actually play it," Mia laughs. 

Faye is back at his home and working on edits for his different compositions. 
He got more ideas when he was working with the other musicians in the rehearsals. 

Faye is looking through one of his music scores because he had a wrong note in the bass part and needs to change it.
He found it and was able to correct it.

Mia and Sushi, Faye and Mary's cats, are enjoying some dinner at their house. 

Faye had been gone all day because of his rehearsals and the cats were ready for their dinner. 

Mary tries to snuggle Mia and Mia resists.
According to Mary, Mia is the least cuddly of their cats. 

Faye then has to practice his piano part that is in one of his ensembles. 
He hasn't had as much time to spend on his piano as he's been so busy with school and rehearsing. 

Faye is adjusting the settings on his electronic piano. He will be using effects when he plays it in his recital, so he is trying to make sure he does it correctly.

Next, Faye has to practice his cello. This is the main instrument he'll be performing on in his recital, and he's had to practice and prepare a lot of music. 

 Faye is practicing a specific type of bow stroke called Spiccato, where the bow is going off and on the string in a very fast motion. 
"It took me weeks to get this! And still sometimes I have issues with it," exclaimed Faye.

Faye's mom, Katrina Chu, wants to accompany Faye for fun on his cello.
Katrina is in town from Florida for a while to visit and is staying with Faye and Mary for a week.

Faye's mom brought with her a Kamilba that she likes to play with.
She loves music and loves creating music with anything she can get. 

A few days later, Faye is doing a rehearsal with a pianist named Isaiah Taylor.
Faye wrote a duo for cello and piano and has just showed Isaiah his part.

Faye wants to make sure the piano lid stays open during the duo, because the sound needs to be reverberating strongly for the specific music style Faye is doing with this composition.

Isaiah is practicing through the new piece. "I love how passionate Faye is about composing, you can tell he is through the things he writes. It's all joy and excitement and you feel that when you're playing it," Isaiah says.