With the semester ending, I’ve been reminiscing on the wonderful artists I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing this year. They displayed a vast range of undeniable talent and distinct individuality. One consistent factor, from artist to artist, is how integral community is to their craft. I was lucky enough that Cornell’s tight-knit artistic community led me to Katherine Lynn-Rose ’25.
Liv Licursi ’25, in my last interview, introduced me to Lynn-Rose. If the name sounds familiar (it certainly did to me), you may be recalling her viral song, “Top of My School,” which has amassed over 28 million streams on Spotify, or maybe that she was a contestant on Canada’s Got Talent. Going into the interview, I admit I was intimidated. But I had no reason to be. Lynn-Rose is the kindest, humblest, most down-to-earth person, and has the most genuinely creative spirit. She deserves every success, and she certainly has achieved many!
Born and raised in Canada by Chinese immigrants, “I came from this little suburban town where I did community theater,” she shared. “I applied to Cornell out of spite … my dad didn't think I could get in.” Her plan was to study math and music, but she found it entirely unfulfilling. “I was so miserable … and so unenthusiastic about what I was doing.” Realizing she couldn’t go on like this, Lynn-Rose did a full 180 and decided to pursue what she actually loved.
It wasn’t an entirely unprecedented change. Lynn-Rose “was always a singer” and “fell in love with performing in general and the arts in general” when she was a child in theater summer camps, even if she viewed it as just an extracurricular. Growing up, Lynn-Rose found that she was often the only Asian, or even the only POC in these artistic spaces, which had a profound impact on her psyche. “That was my whole outlook into the arts — there’s no space for me.” She had resolved to pursue STEM and push her artistic passions to the side, and then COVID-19 hit. Without access to extracurricular outlets, Lynn-Rose found herself itching to create. Having always loved singing, she tried her hand at songwriting. “I wrote ‘Top of My School’ on Garageband on my parents’ iPad,” she shared, “My whole reason was that, if there are no roles for me, I’ll write one for myself. A lead role I could never play in community theater.” And, unexpectedly, the song went viral. “I didn’t think it would go anywhere, it was just fun for me to create. Then, out of nowhere, millions of views. … I realized this is not just a me story, this is something that’s not only universal to Asian American kids but around the world. … people really connected with it, which pushed me to write these stories that we never get to hear in mainstream music and theater.”
The song’s success was only the beginning. Lynn-Rose kept writing and performing, switching her major to PMA after her first year of college. In her sophomore year, Lynn-Rose applied to Canada’s Got Talent on a whim. Months later, she received an email that she’d been selected for a filmed audition. “I took the Ourbus with my friends on a Friday — it was a whole thing. They don’t let people sing original songs usually, but they let me sing mine.” She received glowing reviews. Lynn-Rose was fully aware that host Howie Mandel hates musical theater songs, but was shocked to hear him comment that her performance had changed his mind. After that whirlwind experience, Lynn-Rose accepted that she’d have to wait to hear back on the results of the audition. “I came back to Ithaca, went back to school and everything was normal.” It only stayed normal for a month, when she received another email that she’d been selected as a semifinalist. This time, her performance was a full production, complete with a cast of BIPOC background dancers, extensive rehearsals and a film crew infiltrating her house to get interviews from her family. “I did not make it to the finals, but it was still a crazy, surreal experience that was so fun. It feels unreal a lot of the time. It was so outside of my normal life.”
Back in Ithaca, working toward her degree, Lynn-Rose is turning the song that started it all — “Top of My School” — into a short film. “I wrote this song in high school and thought ‘I have a whole story, I just need the resources and time to develop it. This is gonna be my senior thesis.’ However many years it’s been, I haven’t changed a single lyric. It’s a 20-minute musical short film, super campy and very full-circle to my time at Cornell — all these people I’ve taken classes with, coming together in my final year to tell the story I’ve wanted to tell for so long.” Without spoiling too much, she was willing to share this: “It’s a cautionary tale about this model minority myth, where you let others define you to the point you don’t know who you are anymore. And it pushes you to do crazy things.” Lynn-Rose’s first ever short film, “Class Crush,” was accepted to the 2024 TIFF Next Wave Film Festival, among others, which was “the push I needed to say I can actually do this.” If her first foray into filmmaking was so successful, I’m thrilled to see what her newest installment will achieve. Lynn-Rose is such a passionate, creative savant and her work speaks to the broader POC community through personal experience — which is exactly what makes it so impactful.
As a final note, Lynn-Rose left me with this sentiment about choosing to follow her dreams and change the world for the better:
“It’s the most vulnerable thing I’ve ever done. I was super closed off in high school. I think part of it was failing, part of it was finally addressing my emotions and putting them into tangible work that was so scary and so freeing.”
You can find Lynn-Rose at @katherine.lynnrose on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. The screening of Lynn-Rose’s thesis film will be held at Kiplinger Theatre on May 8 at 5 p.m.
‘Student Artist Spotlight’ is a column that runs intermittently, featuring student artists of all kinds on campus. For interest in a feature, please contact Melissa Moon.
Melissa Moon is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at mmoon@cornellsun.com.
Melissa Moon is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is an Assistant Arts & Culture Editor on the 143rd Editorial Board. She can be reached at mmoon@cornellsun.com.
