Drew Dansby (he/him/his), already 23, is a cellist who questions his career on a daily basis and a recent graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory. Drew was rejected from the prescreen round for three undergraduate music programs, and he barely got enough scholarship at only one other conservatory besides Oberlin to potentially be able to attend. Drew was also the only person from his 2018 high school music camp cohort who was rejected from every Ivy League college he applied to. Drew’s solo debut with the Charlotte Symphony Youth Orchestra at age 14 was canceled after he broke his finger attempting to catch a football three weeks before the performance. Drew’s playing has been described as “raspy” and told that “he had work to do” by the Cultural Voice of North Carolina. His string quartet from Oberlin, the Poiesis Quartet, received third place in the regional Glass City Chamber Music Competition in Toledo, OH, and the group’s playing has been noted as “static” with a “cohesion [that] faltered” by Cleveland Classical. An aspiring orchestral musician, Drew has failed to advance in auditions for 6 different professional orchestras. In 2022 he was rejected or waitlisted to every summer program he applied for, including being rejected from his dream summer program, the Tanglewood Music Center, after being waitlisted 3 years earlier. Drew has failed to pass the first round of all national or international solo competitions he applied to for the last five years and has since given up. With his vast YouTube presence, the two most viewed videos of Drew are a clip of him scratching on the cello at age 6 and a recording of Thomas the Tank Engine arranged for string quartet from 2019. Drew was homeschooled since age 11 and continues to struggle with basic social skills well into his young adult life. In his spare time, Drew enjoys gaslighting people into thinking he can also play the violin. He also managed to complete a chemistry degree without once touching a rotary evaporator.