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November 22, 2004 Vol. 75, no. 8F
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| Umesh Shankar rehearses
Lutoslawski’s Symphony No. 3 with other members of the University
Symphony on Tuesday evening, November 16. The University Symphony
will perform Friday and Saturday, December 10 and 11, at 8 p.m.
in Hertz Hall. |
Playing
to his heart’s content: CS Ph.D. candidate pursues musical passion
despite busy schedule
It all started with a girl.
As a child, computer science Ph.D. candidate Umesh Shankar took violin
lessons, but hated them with an eight-year-old boy’s passion. The
girl who took lessons after him played the clarinet.
“I’m not sure why, but I decided I liked it better,”
Shankar explains with a smile – the clarinet that is, not the girl.
Since then, Shankar and the clarinet have never broken up, a long devoted
relationship that he maintains today despite the rigors of working on
a doctorate in computer security.
By tenth grade, Shankar was playing in the youth orchestra, entering
competitions and winning. Music encouraged his competitive streak and,
by the end of high school, he was first in the all-state competition
and principal clarinetist of the Connecticut state youth orchestra.
He continued playing in the orchestra at Harvard, where he got his bachelor’s
degree in computer science.
Shankar says that having the opportunity to play in an orchestra was
one of the main reasons he applied to graduate school at Berkeley in
1998. Extra activities like music, he says, are so much more accessible
in a campus environment.
Now here at Berkeley, Shankar continues his musical involvement, as
principal clarinetist in the 90-some member University Symphony, primarily
comprised of students. For the wind section in particular, backgrounds
in engineering, physics, and biology are common.
“I’m not sure why, but there seems to be a correlation between
mathemat-ically- and scientifically-inclined people and music,”
Shankar says.
His big challenge now is balancing school and music, and, he says, it
can be tricky. He admits he can’t excel at both school and music
at the same time, so he prioritizes his time depending on what upcoming
project is the most important.
“Pick your battles,” he says to other engineering students
involved in extracurricular activities.
Though Shankar doesn’t aspire to be a professional musician (it’s
too difficult to be successful enough to make a living, he says), he
does hope to play in a community orchestra someday. Or try another instrument.
“Wouldn’t it be cool if I played the electric guitar?”
he muses with a mischievous grin.
Shankar and the University Symphony will perform Friday and Saturday,
December 10 and 11, at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall. Tickets cost $3 for UC
students and can be purchased in the Zellerbach Hall lobby. To learn
more about the symphony visit, http://ls.berkeley.edu/dept/music/performance.html#univsymph.
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