Lrsm Personal Statement

My journey with music theory started long before I came to the US. After being an architect for eight years, I realized that the music discipline was more alluring than the hustle and bustle of a construction site, and I was slowly drawn into it. Subsequently, I became a piano teacher. My determination to become an effective piano teacher motivated me to keep learning and take the progressive piano exams. I managed to achieve an LRSM (Licentiate of The Royal School of Music) diploma in Piano Performing from the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music (London, UK) in 2004. When I left Indonesia in January 2008, I was the only person in my country who held the LRSM diploma in Piano Performing. As I was studying for my piano exam, I realized

As a piano teacher, I certainly took advantage of my experience during the exam by trying to instill my curiosity about music theory to my students. To my surprise, the progress that my students made was astonishing, they played much better. From that moment, I realized that music theory played a significant role in determining the quality of a performance. My discovery about the relationship between music theory and performance led me to keep learning despite having difficulties in obtaining the resources for studying. Soon after, I asked for help from several music theory and piano Professors in the US. Many music theory and piano Professors helped me through emails, notably Professor Steven Laitz from the Eastman School of Music, who advised me to buy his new book The Complete Musician but I could not afford it, and Professor Brian Alegant from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, who sent several pdf attachments through emails and eventually sent two music theory books that I never received due to the chaotic immigration procedure in my

I became a graduate teaching assistant for four semesters during my enrollment in the music theory Master program at Boston University. It was a rewarding job because I not only had a close working relationship with both of my supervisors, the distinguished composers/theorists Professor Samuel Headrick and Professor Vartan Aghababian, but also had many insightful conversations with them about various objects in music theory from a perspective of a composer. My job as a teaching assistant convinced myself that music theory was an integral part of a musician’s professional development, thus inspired me to pursue my education until PhD. I am striving to be an effective teacher for my aspiring music students. Conducting a research is a major part of learning music theory, especially in PhD level. I have prepared myself for that moment by conducting small researches during my undergraduate at Penn State and graduate study at Boston University. Frankly, the challenges that comes with doing a research is