We recently connected with Andres Luz and have shared our conversation below.
Andres, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
A frequent comparison I make with some jest in describing my defection from my 17+ years working in biotechnology followed by my pursuit of music composition and teaching in midlife is the idea of relocating from a nice, well-kept home in the suburbs and moving into a sinking ship. I always share a chuckle whenever I repeat this to someone I just nearly met. Certainly, it may appear to be a gutsy, perhaps even foolish, move that I eventually came to discover meant having to endure some personal sacrifices, but it is a decision that I cannot question when considering that we each only have one lifetime to carve out our own existence and in a way we owe it to ourselves to find our niche, our purpose for living. In old age, it is a common thing for each of us to look back with some reflection on whether or not we made the right life decisions. I, for one, anticipated that didn’t want to face the pummeling realization, in the case of choosing the “safe route,” in arriving at the painful regret for what could have been, what might have been, with so little time left.
In the years leading up to 2014 when I made my final break with my established career, I had spent much time with studies at the community college and at university learning music theory and history, and playing instruments; countless hours listening to recordings of the classical repertoire–even when stuck in Southern California and Bay Area traffic; and numerous visits to performances, libraries, record shops (i.e. Tower Records, Virgin Records Megastore, and Amoeba were my favorites), etc. Outside of my time at work in the laboratory, I voraciously consumed music with a passion, one that grew steadily from my early, budding interests in pursuit of my first degree study of biology and microbiology. Unsurprising to many in my position as the first-born son and achiever of the household, I was groomed through my Filipino-American upbringing to embark upon a very conventional trajectory toward a career in medicine, or some occupation which would primarily have made my grandmother and father proud and happy, and only presumably/secondarily myself.
After graduating with my Bachelors in Biology in 1997, I would have never guessed that almost two decades later, I would be abandoning my “intended” path and venture on my own toward my chosen path, one the carried more authenticity and deliberation when I had learned enough in life and realized what was truly meaningful to me. A scene close to the ending of Christopher Nolan’s INCEPTION (2010) made a deep impression on me when I first saw it. When Saito (Ken Watanabe) shares a surreal and contemplative moment with Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) in a half-future-forward/half-present episode in the story, he utters “Don’t you want to take a leap of faith? Or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone…” Those words resonated with me. Burned into my mind, I was compelled that I did not want my life to end with regret, and so I made a leap of faith and I have not turned back.
So in answering the original question “How did I find my purpose?” By reflecting deeply on love, faith, and the search for authenticity.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am a composer of contemporary classical music and electroacoustic music broadly influenced by the legacy of music history stretching back to the Renaissance and up through the present-day. My growing body of work is enriched by references to Filipino and Filipino-American folklore, history, and culture and harmonized with current trends in today’s concert music among other important influences. I have composed pieces for solo and chamber forces, large ensembles, choir, and electronic works featuring solo performers. So far, I have taught professionally at the University of Redlands as Visiting Assistant Professor of Theory and Electronics between 2018-2020 and am currently looking for my next teaching opportunity after having graduated from the doctoral program at the University of Georgia.
In 2023, I completed revisions on a 26-minute, large-scale musical composition for narrator, wind ensemble (wind band), and pre-recorded audio which draws from literary works written by the Filipino-American labor activist and author, Carlos Bulosan (1913-1956). In his semi-autobiographical novel, America is in the Heart (1946), and the essay, “Freedom from Want” (1943), Bulosan wrote on themes about the preservation of American democracy at a time when it was under threat by the rise of Fascism in Western Europe, Authoritarian Communism in the Soviet Union, and rampant racism at home. As the U.S. had emerged from the years of the Great Depression and entered the Second World War on two fronts, Bulosan stressed that for democracy to survive at home, the nation must seek to preserve a thriving, independent, and well-educated populace situated in a culture that values the natural rights of individuals as well as intellectual and artistic freedoms. Despite numerous instances of overt racism, xenophobia, class discrimination, harassment, and violence, Bulosan steadfastly defended the American values of liberty, opportunity, and excellence, even in the face of abject poverty, poor working conditions, and societal marginalization which he and his Manong-generation colleagues had experienced living in the United States.
These words, Bulosan’s defense of American democracy, became the basis of my composition which won two American Prize titles in 2023, one in wind ensemble composition, and the other for its social-justice content. The piece was performed by the CCM Wind Symphony of the University of Cincinnati, conducted by Maestro Kevin Holzman, and recorded on the ABLAZE Records label, released to CD on Memorial Day 2024, and to digital streaming internationally on July 4th, Independence Day. The recording is labeled as ABLAZE Records’ WIND ORCHESTRA MASTERS, Vol. 1, featuring myself and two other fine composers. In such a pivotal election year when the political climate of the nation is at a high point regarding how we as Americans will choose the direction of leadership for the future with democracy teetering in the balance, I was strongly impelled to express my support for the preservation of American democracy by composing this work.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
My advice for folks searching for their own niche, their own authenticity in life, would be to really reflect upon what things really motivate you, even when there may be others who try to disuade you. Now I don’t believe in pipe dreams or pie-in-the-sky endeavors, but if you’ve been scorched by the fire and faced a lot of resistance and still you persevere while growing in your skills, your talents, your abilities, then perhaps you’ve found your calling. When a fire burns metal under intense pressure and heat, it is rid from its impurities over time which would have otherwise weakened it. Once it hardens and cools, it becomes a stronger, more durable material than ever before. THAT is what you must undergo to test if what you want to do SHOULD be what you must pursue, even in the face of tremendous resistance by others and by personal circumstances. If you’re still standing after everything else has been thrown at you, then going the rest of the way will be worth the effort and sacrifice.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I’m always interested in collaborating with talented musicians on new compositions, but I’m also interested in interdisciplinary projects that I can be a part of over the long-term. I am open to STEAM-directed ideas–that is, interdisciplinary projects that combine art/music with science, technology, engineering, and mathmatics to create novel and innovative creations. I’m definitely interested in collaborating with visual artists, especially intrigued with experimental video art, delving a bit into it myself in the past couple or so years.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://andresrluz.weebly.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andresrluz/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ARLcomposer
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AndresRLuz
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/andresrluz
Image Credits
Portrait Illustration of Carlos Bulosan on score cover by Eliseo Art Silva Studios.
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
