Come senior year, most students are thinking about their colleges, careers, and futures. Senior Luke O’Neill faces these questions as well but has also factored his passions into his decisions.

O’Neill is a very active member of the CHS chamber orchestra and plans on pursuing a career in music.

“I decided to switch from a classical cello performance major to music production,” O’Neill said. “Even though I really love playing the cello, I really want to also explore my own ideas, and I thought that music production would be a really cool way to do that.”

O’Neill is dedicated to pursuing an education in this field as well, and he’s applied to many colleges with this passion in mind.

“My top one is USC. Since they have a really good music production core from that it’s intellectually rich, but also gets you working very quickly, gets you a lot of on-the-job experience,” O’Neill said. “I applied to Cal Lutheran since they also have a lot of faculty there as well. And other places I applied to were the Berklee school of music in Boston, Oberlin, and San Francisco University.”

O’Neill also dedicates a large proportion of his time to educating students of his own.

“I have my own private studio, where I have four students that I tutor, and then every now and then I’ll go to Valley Middle School for volunteer work, to teach, to do sectionals with the cello section,” O’Neill said. “I think it’s very fulfilling work to help people learn pieces of music, teach them cool facts about the cello, and make them more invested in the instrument that they’re learning. It’s just if their parents forced them into doing it, I don’t want ’em to feel bad or feel like it’s a drag. I wanna make it as fun and as interesting for them as possible, no matter where they’re coming from playing their instrument… I think it’s very fulfilling work to tutor people and teach them.”

O’Neill’s peers also notice how big of a role model he is for his fellow students. Fellow senior Will Dennehy especially felt this way after reflecting on the CHS orchestra’s last concert.

“Beyond his playing, Luke is such a great teacher. In class, he’s always helping out and teaching his section something new,” Dennehy said. “He’s such a good role model for everyone. I’m a violist, and I look up to him. The impact he has on the orchestra is simply amazing.”

O’Neill has some advice for anyone else considering a career in music.

“I’d say if you’re trying to make it in music, you have to have really thick skin and you have to try everything,” O’Neill said. “If you want it badly enough if you really wanna live your dream, you can. And yeah, I’m just gonna try as hard as I can.”