- [Announcer] On this episode of "On Stage at Curtis."

- I would love to be the CEO of an orchestra one day.

I'd also love to play in an orchestra.

That would be great as well.

And now my favorite part about classical music is just the connections and the types of people that you meet.

- [Announcer] In partnership with the Curtis Institute of Music, WHYY presents the following program.

(gentle bassoon music) My name is Diego Pena.

I play the bassoon, and I studied bassoon performance.

- [All] Hey!

- When I was younger, my parents threw me into every extracurricular imaginable.

I did everything from football to swimming, basketball, fencing, sailing, all that stuff; nothing stuck.

And so in sixth grade, my friends were all planning to do band the following year.

So I decided to sign up and just do it with my friends, do it with the people I was close with.

And I got there, I was like, "I wanna play saxophone."

Couldn't make a sound on it.

I wanna play trumpet.

Couldn't make a sound on it.

(upbeat saxophone music) So the teacher, she handed me a bassoon, and she was like, "You can make a sound on this."

I was like, "I guess I can."

And the rest is history.

(audience applauds) (audience member speaks indistinctly) But what really inspired me to do music as a career and as a passion was attending the Interlochen Arts Camp.

I attended it in 2017, '18 and '19.

And it wasn't until 2019 when I really just knew that, I was like, "This is it."

(calm piano music) I also went to high school there for my senior year.

It's just the best musicians, people who are so passionate about everything that they're doing.

It's like, you go there and you're, at least for me, I didn't know that this many people my age were so passionate about the arts.

(calm piano music) Not a lot of people know what the bassoon is.

And still to this day, even though I've played it for nine years, I still find myself explaining what it is to new people every single day.

And as a child, it definitely made me stand out.

(lighthearted bassoon music) All my friends were playing saxophone, trumpet, percussion, drums, all the instruments that everyone knows.

And when I go to my family reunions and tell them, "Oh, I'm playing the bassoon," it's just like, "What, are you what?"

(chuckles) But it's been really fun playing such a, honestly, unorthodox instrument, because I feel always so grateful to be the person to introduce what the bassoon is to the people who don't know it.

(lighthearted bassoon music) So the first performance is the "Histoire du Tango," and that's the piece by Astor Piazzolla that I performed me and my friend Rodimir who is a classical guitarist.

(audience cheers and applauds) We decided to do that piece because online, there's one recording of a bassoonist playing the piece, originally written for flute and guitar, or violin and guitar.

And since it was just one movement out of four, we decided why not just do the whole thing and put out, not a commercial recording, but just a recording?

And just, it's tango music, it's classical guitar, like it's bassoon.

It's like a weird combo.

Let's really dive into it.

("Histoire du Tango") I come from a family of seven, and there's not a single musical person in that family.

So when I first started, it was already out of the blue.

My parents made me and my siblings take piano lessons when we were younger, but didn't stick for anyone.

And then when I joined band in the sixth grade, it really started to exponentially show, like, the progress I was making.

And for a while they were, I feel like it's very common for parents to be like, their child comes to them saying, "Hey, I want to be a musician."

The first thought is, "Oh, you're gonna be playing on the subways in New York."

You know, that's it.

(gentle bassoon and harp music) I really have to give many thanks.

And I'm extremely grateful for my parents for allowing me to do this because they saw that I was passionate about it.

They very easily could have been like, "Nope, you have to do something else.

You're not doing this."

But they saw how much I love it.

They saw that it's what I was made for, essentially.

And I really can't thank them enough for it.

(gentle bassoon and harp music) I think the biggest quality you need, not only as a classical musician, but in my opinion as a person as well, is to be open-minded.

You need to be able to take feedback, whether you like it or not.

Take it in, process it.

Think of maybe, "Why did my teacher say that?

Why did they think I should play it this way if I think I should play it this way?"

You can't just hear something from your teacher and go, "No, that's stupid, I'm not gonna do that."

You have to really consider things heavily.

And then I feel like if you consider that and you have a valid argument for why something works or doesn't work, then that's really all you need.

So a lot of my preparation, while it does involve studying the music and knowing what I want to do musically, it's more so, I feel like more of my thought and process going into the performance is putting out the best product that I can for not only myself, but the audience, because in the end, that's who's gonna enjoy the music.

Our worst critics are ourselves.

So like, I'm always gonna be of any performance I do, but as long as I can put something out there that I am happy with, that the audience will enjoy, then that's all that matters to me.

(gentle bassoon and harp music) The best way to get better as a musician is to play with other people.

You can lock yourself in a practice room for countless hours a day, it doesn't matter.

But if you're not performing alongside other musicians and colleagues and friends, then I don't think you're gonna get much better.

(upbeat bassoon and harp music) Any chance where I can perform with my colleagues, even just like walk into someone's practice room, listen to my colleagues, and I don't even have to play, that's some of the best work and inspiration that I can get.

(audience applauds) So the third performance I have on there was one of the first performances I ever did at Curtis on stage which was the "Mozart Piano Quintet in E-Flat Major."

And that I did with my friends Christine Ott on horn, Ben Price on oboe, Yed-in-on on clarinet, and Yang Yang Ron on piano.

And like I said, that in my opinion, the best way to get better at music is to play with others, this was like exhibit A. I think from just our first rehearsal, we sounded pretty good.

And by the concert, I was like, "This is great."

Like, I am so inspired.

("Piano Quintet in E-Flat Major") I still think it's a bit too early to tell.

Like I said, any of what I just listed is a possibility.

I'm taking auditions.

If any of those work out, I would do that.

I might take some time off before really deciding what I want to do.

I might go straight to Europe.

I might go to a university like Penn or Harvard, well, if I get in.

But yeah, I like to think it's too early to have a answer, but I feel very fortunate that I have a lot of options that I'm very happy with.

So for orchestra auditions, it's pretty, you just gotta get lucky.

I think that's with most auditions in general.

I think you have to put the best version of yourself out there.

Don't think of it as an audition.

It's rather a mini performance for a mini audience.

(audience applauds) This was our performance of "Alpine Symphony."

So for me, "Alpine Symphony" was, I always have a piece that I'm looking forward to wanting to play ever since I first started music.

I remember the first piece I ever really, really wanted to play was "Rite of Spring."

Played that one, and then my next piece was "Alpine Symphony," and it was about five years since wanting to play that.

We did it at Curtis, and it was just such a insane experience.

Like, it's such a amazing piece that just tells the story of traversing a mountain.

And like, if you look at the program notes and what part syncs up with what, like, "Oh, this is the waterfall, this is the storm, this is the sunrise, this is the nightfall."

It's so cool, it's so cool.

("Alpine Symphony") So I see myself primarily performing classical music, especially just, it's what I know best.

It's what kind of speaks to me most.

But I also love jazz music.

I absolutely love jazz music, and I will nerd out so hard on it.

Like I mentioned, I play saxophone, and I still have one here in Philly that every now and then I'll just get out and start playing some stuff.

I always ask my friends at Curtis who knows some jazz.

It's like, "Hey, you wanna get together, you wanna jam?"

We might go to Chris's jazz club, you know, go with our horns, just listen, not even play, just listen to all the music, and it's, ugh, it's great.

(upbeat bassoon music) - [All] Hey!

- Tyler, The Creator would be pretty sick to collaborate with.

His soundscape of what he does and just his ideas and what he gets across in his music, I think it's so cool.

Next in my journey.

Would love to just travel the world more.

I travel for auditions all the time, but I also, any excuse I can find to go see my friends in Europe, I would love that, that would be great.

Or even family in Mexico, I would love that.

(uplifting orchestral music) Curtis has really opened up many options that I didn't think were possible, even in contention for what I want to do.

I came into Curtis with the idea of, I want to get an orchestra job and I only want to do that.

But at this moment in time right now, I would love to get an orchestra job.

I would love to go down the education route, like, getting higher education degrees.

I would love to go to Europe and continue school.

I would love to get an orchestra job, go back to school, become a dean.

Like, it's opened up so many things that I didn't even consider before.

(dramatic orchestral music) My younger self, I would say keep doing what you're doing.

You know, don't let anyone try and bring you down.

Just persevere and constantly push forward.

(uplifting orchestral music) For my future self, what would I...

I feel like it's kind of a weird question.

Oh man, now I gotta think.

I feel like if what I would tell my future self from what I know now is just have a good time.

I know myself, I'm a bit of a workaholic, but just have a good time.