Sophomore Anson Tong gathered with his three groupmates at a table scattered with countless sheets of music, trying to assemble their ideas to compose a four-movement string quartet. Despite having to spend dozens of hours on the masterpiece, Tong and his groupmates felt rewarded after having the opportunity to listen to their piece being played by a professional string quartet.

This past summer, Tong participated in a three-week residential program called “Why Music Matters” at the Stanford Summer Institute of Arts. While there, he learned more about the university’s music program and expand his knowledge about different genres of music.

Tong was introduced to music early on, learning to play the piano at age 5. But his true love of music blossomed four years later when he began playing the violin

“I love the sound and flexibility of the range of the violin,” he said. “I also loved how multiple pitches could be played at the same time.”

At camp, Tong explored subjects such as music composition, music history, music theory, sound acoustics, music recording and diverse instruments such as the harpsichord and bells.

For Tong, a typical day started at 9:30 a.m. Throughout the day, he spent four to five hours immersing himself in music whether that was working with six or seven other students and a music professor, finishing reading homework or composing music. Though lights-out was at 11 p.m., Tong occasionally stayed up to finish his music composition.

Tong’s favorite composition that he wrote was the team composition, which resembled a “Haydn-Mozart type string quartet that also included a piano and a capella.” The hardest parts of this were narrowing down the many ideas they had and then having  to devote numerous hours to  composing the piece digitally.

Not only did Tong expand his knowledge of music and make new friends, but he also realized that pursuing a music career will require him to have a comprehensive  knowledge of subjects  such as pitch, rhythm and a deep understanding of music theory.

In the future, Tong plans to pursue music in college and hopes to become a mentor to beginners. Tong is especially interested in Romantic music, an era characterized by emotion, and he hopes to pursue this path when he does musical research.

Tong has one piece of advice for those pursuing music: “If you have a passion for music, you should be willing to use your talent to search, create and share it with other people.”