“You should never give up on something you worked hard for."
- Name
- Alan
- Class of
- 2025
- Biomedical engineering
Alan Mao knew he wanted to be an engineer from an early age—an engineer who happened to really like music.
When he came to Hopkins, he had opportunities to pursue both of his passions in the sciences and in piano, studying biomedical engineering and computer sciences and becoming one of the winners of the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition in the spring of 2021. The competition celebrates students who are not majoring in music with the distinction to perform featured concertos of their choosing during an HSO concert.
Mao has played piano since he was 4 years old, inspired to play by his older sister, Sarah, who was the first in his family to pick up an instrument. He and Sarah studied music with Hyun-Sook Park at the Peabody Piano Academy, and while Mao had entered his HSO piece in prior competitions, he never made it far enough to perform them as a concerto.
"Looking back, I think every failed attempt showed me a different way to approach the piece and motivated me to delve deeper into the score," Mao says. "Being chosen as an HSO winner—it means a lot. For me, it's proof that you should never give up on something you worked hard for."
