The people around us, whether we like it or not, influence us every day. Along with those who are closest to us, we take things from others too. When we see someone on the street wearing something we like, we want to buy it. When someone plays a song we like, we want to keep listening to it. And when someone does something we think is great, we want to do it too. Many choose to stick to their roots, while others take from a number of different aspects. But, somewhere in between tradition and innovation, we are all changing day by day in a city that, remarkably, does the same.
Lynlia Tso’s eyes lit up when telling the story her parents’ first encounter, which was the beginning of the changing of her family into their own unique little clan. “My dad was working at a restaurant and my mom just came in… And that’s how they met.” Before the Tsos became the entire Tso family, Lynlia’s mother lived in Shanghai and her father lived in Guangzhou. Lynlia describes the cities in wonderful ways, enjoying both of them, but perhaps Guangzhou a bit more because of its fantastic shopping. Like many of New York City’s wide array of immigrants, Lynlia’s mother and father moved here for education, attending New York University and City College, respectively. And years after meeting in the restaurant, they have started a legacy of attending colleges in the big city; Lynlia and her older brother Kemen both attend Baruch.
But education isn’t the only legacy passed down through generations of the Tso family. It was Lynlia’s grandmother from Shanghai who, about a decade ago, first opened her eyes to a world in which she would soon be enveloped in: music.
“She couldn’t speak English so she always yelled at me in Chinese when she was teaching me the piano,” Lynlia giggled as she recalled the memory of she and her grandmother practicing together. Perhaps her harshness was inspired by her Shanghai roots, a city Lynlia characterizes as one of China’s “financial centers.” Either way, Lynlia enjoyed spending time with her grandmother, sitting at the piano, learning.
Shanghai’s skyline
From a young age, Lynlia experienced music all around her. In third grade, a middle school band teacher visited her elementary school and taught her to play the recorder, and he later realized her talent on the piano could earn her a spot in his middle school band. As high school approached, Lynlia faced a difficult decision: should she go to Staten Island Technical High School, one of the best academic schools in New York, or to LaGuardia, one of the best art schools in the city?
Lynlia’s talent couldn’t have found a better home than Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School. One of the most prestigious art schools in the entire country, LaGuardia was a land of opportunity for students of all types. Like a miniature New York City, LaGuardia was home to various demographics and very liberal in nature. “People would dress in anything they would want,” Lynlia said. “From hipster to punk to just sweats. Nobody would judge. [The students were] very accepting of LGBT groups and such.”
Steps away from Lincoln Center, LaGuardia helped Lynlia realize her full potential. However, this didn’t come easily. Though its true that everyone at LaGuardia had a true passion for something, Lynlia grew a bit unconfident. “Back in Staten Island,” she told me, “I stood out as someone that played piano really well. At LaGuardia however, there were may talented pianists who have had music run in their family. Or they have been playing at a very young age. Or they have been practicing for hours and hours.”
Little did Lynlia realize that those practices with her grandmother would pay off. After contemplating whether or not music was still for her, she stuck through and succeeded well enough to land herself in Macaulay, a program for all-around gifted students. Confidence radiates in Lynlia’s voice when she talks about performing in front of crowds at Baruch’s concerts or with the Macaulay Chamber Music group, and her eyes sparkle just a bit more. “Music is a way for me to express myself,” Lynlia shined. And what better place for Lynlia to practice music than New York? She is continuing to hone her talent with the entire city at her fingertips.
But the glimmer fades when Lynlia admits she was mistaken in thinking she would enjoy doing something non-artistically involved once she got to college. While she loves what Macaulay has to offer, Lynlia knows she’d be better off at a CUNY school with more musical opportunities for her.
“Coming to Baruch made me realize that I miss music. A lot.” It is one thing to excel as a student, but stopping yourself from doing the one thing you are truly passionate about is one of the worst feelings in the world for a college student trying to find herself. “I realized that there were many college students like me who were confused about their decisions for the future,” she continued.
Music is also a medium through which Lynlia meets other people. She describes it as a “common language that almost everybody can understand. There are feelings of happiness, sadness, and love in music. I think music is something that everybody can share regardless of their different backgrounds.”
“I met someone who had an associates degree in cooking. He came to Hunter afterward because he didn’t like culinary arts as much as he thought he would. And he’s currently a music major at Hunter now.”
As perhaps the most representative city of the nation’s melting pot, New York offers not only a home and niche for so many people, but also a place to adopt a niche of one’s own creation. New Yorkers move so swiftly through the day that, most of the time, we don’t even notice what was take in. As Lynlia states so perfectly, “Everything is, like, on the subway, going back and forth, fast paced to different meetings and stuff.”
Currently, Lynlia has stopped her piano lessons to focus on finishing her semester with great grades at Baruch. But she still practices with the Macaulay Chamber society. She talks with music professors at Baruch about the upcoming Spring concert, which she will most likely be performing in. And she teaches piano to little kids on the weekend. Perhaps they will be inspired by Lynlia, a great talent who was taught by a generation before her own. And, whether she decides to stay in Manhattan or take her talents somewhere else, even perhaps back to Staten Island where her family currently resides, it is safe to say the name “Lynlia Tso” will appear on a billboard somewhere, someday.
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