Ava Hendrickson ‘22 | Mia Cabral ‘22
A member of Episcopal’s band program since seventh grade, Felix Zhu is February’s artist of the month. Zhu plays clarinet in both the concert and jazz band. He discusses his involvement in music stating, “I play in concert [band] and jazz band. I used to play clarinet in jazz band, but now I play piano.”
Photo courtesy of Felix Zhu.
Zhu explains his background with the clarinet, commenting “I don’t remember exactly [how I started]. When I was younger… I remember being very adamant about learning the clarinet because I heard someone else play it. I believe I also wanted to play the french horn at a point, but I ended up playing the clarinet.” Zhu explains, “I prefer jazz over classical just because jazz is a bit more free and more expressive to me.” Band Director Ryan Dankanich has been working with Zhu as a musician since his arrival in 7th grade at Episcopal and comments on his musical growth, saying “He has a lot of natural gifts which, when combined with his excellent work ethic, will always help a person develop as a musician.” Dankanich also mentions Zhu’s musical versatility, adding “Through his dedication to learning music over these years, he has shown a steady improvement as a clarinet player, a piano player, and as a complete musician. He even plays a little bit of saxophone on the side!”
In addition to Zhu’s personal skill, he is also a valuable member to the entire band, as Dankanich notes that “Felix is an important musical leader in the band. He is certainly one of our strong musicians which helps him lead by his musical example, but he’s also a great listener and provides excellent leadership to his bandmates.” Fellow band member Nick Cerone ‘22 comments on Zhu’s talent saying that “He plays really good solos, he’s a really good player. He’s always able to take charge with an instrument you wouldn’t traditionally think is a big, upfront jazz instrument.”
Zhu says Dankanich is a helpful teacher because “he’s very open to teaching kids about more things so when we want to pursue more things he always gives us a lot of good resources and really good information about them, maybe some jazz legends that we can listen to and learn more about.”
Zhu says it is sometimes tough to find musicians to emulate stating, “Clarinet’s not a super conventional jazz instrument so definitely people like Benny Goodman and recently I learned about a guy named Eric Dalphi. And these are some people who play clarinet in jazz, and that’s not super common so it’s really good to listen to professionals who do that.”
Despite Zhu’s love for music and the clarinet, he says that he doesn’t plan on pursuing a career in music, stating “I don’t think I’m going to be a professional musician, but I do think it’s valuable to still be able to play music because it’s sort of like being able to draw or write. It’s just another way of expressing yourself.” Zhu believes that when it comes to art, focusing on one’s own accomplishments and progress is vital, saying “I’d say a lot of people tend to compare themselves to people who are better than them and that sort of discourages them so I think it’s important to just look at what you’re doing and look at everything that you’re improving at.”