In 2022, a recording of the 3rd movement of Shostakovich's 8th symphony appeared on my "recommended" page while looking through YouTube. I clicked the video, probably because I found the abstract art on the thumbnail interesting (I did not care one bit about music back then). The viola part playing the main theme at the beginning of the movement instantly got my attention, so I listened to the entire thing. No piece of music I had ever heard up until that point was as powerful and expressive as what I had just listened to. That was the moment my passion for classical music (especially for the works of Dmitri Shostakovich) was formed.
Dmitri Shostakovich is, by far, my favorite classical composer. I love his powerful and outright awe-inspiring (and sometimes spooky) themes and motifs. Historically speaking, during Stalin's reign, he, along with some other Russian composers (most notably Prokofiev), was accused of writing "inappropriate" music that portrayed the suffering under Stalin's regime. Shostakovich did not want his music to become a tool for the state, so he kept on writing his way. Of course, Stalin had a reputation for eliminating people he did not like, so Shostakovich did try to keep a low profile by writing music for films. Stalin's death in 1953 was probably the biggest relief for Shostakovich. His 10th symphony is all about Stalin and his regime, including even a full musical portrait of him in the second movement, and it marked a complete transformation in Shostakovich's style of composing. He was finally able to write freely, and he did so until his death in 1975.
My favorite composition by Shostakovich has got to be his 7th "Leningrad" Symphony. It is full of hidden messages and double meaning passages, simply peak Stalin era Shostakovich. As Mark Wigglesworth said, this symphony is "not about Hitler sieging Leningrad...", as that is what Shostakovich wanted Stalin and his buddies to believe, "...It's about the Leningrad that Stalin destroyed and that Hitler merely finished off".
I started learning to play the violin by myself at age 13.
Besides playing the violin, I also like to write my own music (classical, of course). For this reason, I'm also learning to play the piano (I think it's an easier instrument to improvise on).
I upload all of my works and recordings to my YouTube channel (as of now there's nothing to see there).