|
10 Questions with:
Luis Daniel Urbina
About Luis:
My name is Luis Daniel Urbina. I was born in Detroit, and I moved down here when I was almost six years old. My school-hopping career has so far included Westbrook, St. James, Emma Sansom, and Gadsden High.
I’m a bit bookish; I love reading anything I can get my hands on, and I actually look forward to taking classes in the summer (so far I’ve gone to Vanderbilt, Yale, and Georgetown). I’m not at all athletically inclined, and I’ve never been involved in an organized sport, barring one regrettable season as a reluctant 1st grade soccer player. I am very interested in the arts, however, especially the entire moviemaking process, and I hope to be a director someday.
I joined the Wind Ensemble in 2002 and then the Symphony the following year, largely at the urgings of the great Roy McCord and the illustrious Ford Adams, respectively. Last year I tried to pick up the oboe and make it my principal instrument, with disastrous results, so I’m sticking with the piano and the sax.
|
|
1. How did your musical career begin?
My parents put me in piano lessons when I was in K-5, and then I started up the alto sax in the 8th grade.
2. Who are your primary musical influences?
I really like to listen to professional recordings of whatever I pieces I’m working on. It’s especially interesting to hear what different musicians will do with the same piece.
3. What do you like to listen to when you aren't playing your instrument?
I like almost everything except most hip-hop and country. The Strokes, Weezer, Queen, Phantom Planet, Mellowdrone, Radiohead, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Beatles, the Cure, the Killers, Bright Eyes, the Shins, Rufus Wainwright, Coldplay, the Postal Service, Chopin, and Yann Tiersen are especially noteworthy.
4. What are your hobbies outside of music?
Reading and watching movies.
5. What has been your greatest opportunity provided to you because of your musical talent?
All the different experiences! The trips and the parades, especially. Being conducted by David Holsinger at District Honor Band was awesome, too.
6. What are your favorite movies or television shows?
Movies by Wes Anderson, Baz Luhrmann, Charlie Kaufman, Tim Burton, and Stanley Kubrick. I also love Amélie, Donnie Darko, 8½, Citizen Kane, Gattaca, Garden State, Igby Goes Down, the Star Wars movies, Mean Girls, Kill Bill, Sin City, the Neverending Story, the Red Balloon, Waking Life, Family Guy, and the West Wing.
7. You can have dinner with any four people, living or dead. Who would they be?
Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Bill Shakespeare, and Thomas Jefferson. Julia Child is the cook.
8. What are your plans after high school?
Go to college. Or, alternatively, and in the words of Igby Slocumb, go “far away…discover the meaning of life. Whatever.”
9. Who is your favorite historical figure?
Probably Gandhi. It’s a difficult question.
10. Describe yourself in four words.
unsure, strange, sarcastic, kind
|
