Earlier this year a student at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music, who Lu has recruited for the post-graduate program at TCU, failed to get a visa to the US.

When the student told his professor that he was denied a visa because of his deficiency in English, he thought that was the end of his dream. But Lu was not ready to give up on him.

"I wrote a letter to the visa officer in Shenyang, explaining that language ability is not of such importance to music training as other studies, and then after consulting my friends in the US, I addressed the letter to the student, instructing him to explain the situation to the consulate," he says.

"I will help him to enroll in a language school as soon as he arrives in the US."

Lu also helps his Chinese students to find apartments, roommates, Chinese groceries, second-hand cars and part-time jobs in the US.

Lu was from Shanghai and started music training at the age of 6. When he was enrolled in the middle school attached to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music at 12, he was taller than most of his classmates. The teacher suggested he take up the double bass, as the instrument was too large for other children to maneuver.

"I was so impressed by the beauty of the double bass," Lu recalls. "I became intrigued ever since."