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Miami Palmetto High School rising senior Jeffrey Lu won the Underclassman Award for Outstanding Music student at the end-of-the-year awards ceremony.
Lu began playing viola in first grade.
He chose to play viola because he brother already played the violin.
“I was expected to play a stringed instrument, so I landed on the viola,” he says. “Initially I played it out of necessity, but it turned to playing out of pride for my instrument as well.”
He has a passion for classical music as well as the instrument he plays.
He started in elementary orchestra in fourth grade at Palmetto Elementary and continued at Palmetto Middle. He joined the orchestra in tenth grade.
He also plays in competitions outside of school.
“I play a solo piece in front of judges,” he says. “I consistently got superior and excellent ratings in Solo and Ensemble. I also did it throughout middle and high school.”
He also qualified and participated in the Superintendent Honors Orchestra multiple times in elementary school and once in high school.
He practices at least an hour a week but because of his schedule he had to cut down on his practice schedule this year.
His volunteer work takes him outdoors to Coral Reef Park. He used to play tennis and when he stopped, he decided to volunteer and help the coaches.
“I help the kids play tennis,” he says. “Generally, working with the middle school tennis players can be fun. They have interesting conversations that differ from those of high schoolers and like to make jokes all the time. They tend to be quite mature as well, as they listen to the coaches and do their practices as told, while still having fun with the experience.”
He likes playing sports so now he plays badminton for Palmetto.
His extracurriculars include being a member of the Tri-M Music Honor Society, the Science National Honor Society and Mu Alpha Theta.
This coming school year, he’s taking over the leadership role for the Silver String project, which provides music for the elderly in retirement homes.
“One goal I have for Silver Strings is to increase its presence and reach on social media in order to make people aware of the project, so that they can help to contribute to the purpose of the project, as well as helping to provide volunteers,” he says. “Another goal I have for Silver Strings is to have more music playing events throughout the year.”
He’s secretary of Tri-M, the music honor society.
“Currently, Tri-M is working on a tutoring project for Palmetto Middle, as the band and orchestra program in Palmetto Middle is facing some challenges, and to my current knowledge, the band program simply no longer exists,” he says. “This is an issue since the middle school provides an important bridge for music students from middle to high school, so Tri-M intends on working more closely with the conductor at Palmetto Middle in order to coordinate more tutoring opportunities to ensure the next generation of music students have a good base established and will thus be prepared for the high school band and orchestra experience.”
He works with the Pinecrest City Music Project helping elementary school students.
For college, he’s considering applying to Florida universities, including the University of Florida, Florida State, the University of Central Florida, FIU, and the University of Miami.
He plans to major in a science field related to biology. He wants to become a doctor, a pediatrician, or anesthesiologist. He’s also interested in virology and immunology.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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