Peter Walsh is a senior here at Hart who picked up a cello at seven years old and hasn’t set it down since. Growing up in a musical family in which him and his siblings were all strongly encouraged to try playing an instrument at a young age, Walsh has always been around music. For the past 11 years, Walsh has enjoyed fine-tuning his musical abilities. 

“I definitely look up to Yo-Yo Ma because he is a legendary cellist and a nice person; I got to see him teach a class once. I think the people I look up to most are the different professional musicians I have met over the years because they are doing what they love and are making a living doing it,” said Walsh. 

Since the cello has been a part of his life for so long, Walsh definitely feels playing the cello has influenced his life in a tremendous way. 

“I have met the most amazing musicians who are so kind and caring and have shared their music with me. I hope to do that someday too,” Walsh said.

As he is pursuing a career in music, Walsh has applied to many top colleges. However, applying to colleges as a music major is different than applying to colleges the typical way. Prospecting students have to visit all the schools they wish to apply for in person and do an audition for them. 

Walsh has definitely put in the work the past 11 years, because out of the 11 high-quality colleges and universities he applied to, he was accepted into ten and waitlisted at one. 

This year, over 109,000 students applied to UCLA, the most applicants UCLA has ever seen. Despite the competitive atmosphere, Walsh was accepted into their music program. At the time of this publication, Walsh plans to attend UCLA, his top college, majoring in cello performance.

Despite all these major achievements, Walsh remains humble. 

“I think my biggest achievement is playing the cello. Some musicians feel that it is important to win lots of competitions and win solos and be better than the others at their instrument, but I’m not a particularly competitive guy and I don’t often compete just for the sake of competing. It’s still important for me to be good at playing and to play in tune and with good musicality, but for me it hasn’t been about beating others,”  Walsh said. 

Walsh has a promising future ahead of him, and there is no telling where this future Hart Alumni could end up.