LBCC’s Got Talent: Vlad the Instrumentalist

 Vlad Standcescu viewed “LBCC’s Got Talent,” a public performance in front of more than a hundred of his peers, as warm-up practice for his real, most important audience of one – his mom. 

Still, Standcescu  got third place in a fierce competition, featuring over a dozen student performers at the Russell Tripp Performance Center on Feb. 19.

Running is his sport. Standcescu could maybe use a physical therapist himself, which he plans to be after graduation, as he currently has an injury. Music is a salve during his recovery.

Check out Vlad’s music:

Vladz_guitar  on Instagram

After the talent show Standcescu sat down with The Commuter and explained how and why he wanted to show LBCC that he had talent.

“I was in the bathroom and I saw this flyer saying ‘LBCC’s Got Talent.’ That gave me an idea, Oh, I should try that out. It just gave me the mindset, Hey, if I don’t try it, I feel like I’m going to regret it. If I do try it, I tried, you know, even if I do bad, I still did something.

“I just wanted to practice, mainly for my mom’s birthday. It can be very hard to get that transition from playing just by yourself in your room to (being) in front of 30 of your mom’s friends who are a little judgmental. 

“I came and I got my guitar out. I had no warm-up or practice and they called my name and I can’t be like, oh, can you wait for five minutes? You know, the show must go on. So, I was really happy the way I played.”

Q: Yeah, you got two, almost three encores

My brother, my twin brother, he said he was going to do that from the beginning. So I already knew he was going to say some stupid stuff like, oh, can you play one more song for us? Before the concert, he’s like, “Vlad, are you seriously going to play one song?” And I was like, “yeah, that’s what they want. “Vlad, I’m going to make them convince you to do two songs. You’ll see what I’m going to do.” 

And I had to be prepared for another song and another song. And they said it again for the third time.  By the third one I’m like, OK, how about one of you come up here? 

(My brother) actually played the drums last year, but being in a townhouse, an apartment, it was a little loud. And he wanted to play generally to be in a band sort of thing, but his kind of style of music didn’t match mine. He’s a great guy. He’s my brother at the end of the day. What are you going to do? 

Because he’s my twin, you’d expect us to be the same, but we are totally, completely different personas. I’m a kinesiology major. I want to be a physical therapist and he’s an electrical engineer. It’s totally two different paths. My brother actually gave me the idea of going into dual enrollment. He took physics here at LBCC. It’s nice, ‘cause he’s my roommate. He’s my best friend. If I get married one day, he’ll be my best man.

Q: How’d it go with your mom? 

I’ve been practicing those two songs for, like, the last six-ish months. I went to visit her and she had all of her friends over and she also has two other guitar players that, like, they have way more, many more years of experience, so it (was) a good way to practice in front of a crowd.

Q: You must be from a musical family?

No, you’d be surprised. I’m actually not. I’m the first musician in my family. I first started out playing guitar, actually, when I was in eighth grade. I only did it to impress others, which wasn’t a really great motivator, so I kind of stopped playing and then two years ago, I was like, man, I need to use my time more wisely, so I picked up the guitar again, and I actually fell in love with it, because now I do it for myself.

(My parents) they don’t play any instruments, but they love music. They love to listen to it, so usually I play songs more oriented towards what they like to hear. It’s usually, like, folk or classical music. They go to orchestras and lots of choirs, and theater, plays, to hear more classical music. So, I was like, oh, I know they will love these two songs. 

Q: Classical music is more of a challenge, I’m sure.

The challenge, you know, that’s what I love about it. What’s the fun in life without a challenge? 

I mean, they make up these corny lines in movies saying, like, it’s all about the journey, not the end of the journey. And I kind of see it that way because when I finish playing, I’m like, OK,  on to the next  project. Because I enjoyed the journey within practicing and playing. And once I finally finished it, you know, I felt happiness because I played it for my mom and she really liked it.

I like to play a lot of instrumental pieces. Usually in guitar playing, you’re in a band. I really want to play the song (exactly). I mean, it just takes practice. I started just strumming out. Everyone starts somewhere. If you are passionate towards your goal or whatever you want to (do), without consistency, it will never come to be. But that consistency, it is driven by the love for that goal. And I really love guitar. 

(In) the last year I went in front of the Memorial Union in Oregon State. And usually a lot of people (are) there. I put my chair up there and just started playing random guitar songs. And it was really nice because I got that aspect of playing in front of people and people started watching and saying, good job. And one of them gave me actually $10 because they thought I was, you know, wanting money. So I’m like, I’m just practicing, you know.. 

That was actually my first $10, like money I ever got. And then it just kind of went up from there. I think I made like $50 bucks that day. It’s a good way, you know, a side hustle, go to maybe LA and just like go in the middle of the street and just play songs.

Q: Do you find that music is a nice break from what you’re studying? Or do you kind of approach it the same way like athletics, like training?

I’m a runner. I’m currently injured at the moment, for the last six weeks. And I feel like music in general has held up my hopes. I’m currently taking physics right now and it’s been kind of making me very stressed out.

It’s just very hard on me, especially to do a course like that and not having a balance between that, especially since I’m injured. It’s really nice that I have music and I can play. I usually play like two to three hours a day and I get tired from it, but I enjoy it because I do something every day. You know, I improve off of it. 

So it’s much nicer if I wasn’t injured, where I could run and play music. But, you know, sometimes life doesn’t go always (that) way.

Photo by Lilly Eberhart-Garah