Chicago Youth Symphony in Beijing

I am so proud of them!

Dress rehearsal at 国家大剧院

The Making of A Good Violinist

 Zigeunerweizen, Steven Sun violin, Nancy Hagen, paino. Spring recital, 2014

Many parents start their children on violin at a young age of 5 or 6 under the illusion that if the child plays the instrument for 10 years, by age 16 he or she has to be good. The years of playing does not mean anything, it is the hours of practicing that makes the difference. I have seen students on Suzuki Book 5 after playing the violin for 5 years.

Steven Sun started violin with me when he was 7. His practicing time increased to one hour everyday in the second year after he turned 8. The practice time continued to increase as he was getting more advanced. He joined the Prep String Orchestra of Chicago Youth Symphony when he was 10. Steven is 16 now. He is a member of CYSO’s Symphony Orchestra, the highest orchestra in the organization. If he had only reached Suzuki Book 5 in his fifth year of playing, he would have never developed the skills that enabled him to play a virtuoso violin piece such as Zigeurnerweizen or to win the Chicago Youth Symphony audition. If a child aspires to become an accomplished violinist at 16 like Steven Sun, he or she not only needs to start young on the violin but also needs to practice seriously from the beginning.  

Steven Sun, age 7

We the 1%

Spring Recital, 2014

Years ago I read a record sale statistic in Gramophone Magazine. It said that only 1% of the population buys classical music CDs. Congratulations to the participants of our Spring recital. I know that not many of you would become professional musicians, but because you have played Bach, Mozart and Beethoven on the violin, when you grow up you will make that 1% of classical music CD buyers. You are the ones who will keep classical music alive. Thank you.

Practice Pays Off

Meadowmount School of Music is the most prestigious summer music camp for stringed instruments in the country where Yo Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and those that you are buying their recordings today, spent summers when they were young. . The school was founded in 1944 by Ivan Galamian, the greatest violin teacher of the century. At Meadowmount students’ age ranges from 13 to 18. A minimum 5 hours of daily practice is required aside from private lessons, master class and chamber music. This video is a performance of what they called "spare time music" by the boys lived in the same dorm, the Piatigorsky Dorm, named after the great Russian cellist Gregor Piatiagorsky. It’s their own arrangement of mashup of tunes from classical to pop, country and movie music. They are having great joy and so much fun that makes me have tears, for only I know that this wonderful experience is made possible by impeccable techniques that is acquired by, yes, a minimum 5 hours of daily practice. 

PS. I've never seen cello being played this cool. Violinists! Look at how beautifully these cellists's wrist and elbow fold on the bow arm and their continuous vibrato. It's a lot harder to do vibrato on the cello than on the violin. These kids really played their hearts out.  

Meadowmount School of Music 

Talented and Disciplined

Steven Song, age 12

You might have heard the saying that everyone is talented, everyone is creative, just not everyone is disciplined. Well, I must confirm that in the music profession not everyone is talented, but definitely everyone is disciplined. You practice hard to make up for lack of talent, and talent develops with practice. But if someone is talented and disciplined, then he can reach a high level of music making in a young age, and Steven Song is such a musician. Steven started violin with me when he was 6 years old. This video was recorded at the final round of Geneva Olympic Level competition. He was 12 years old at the time playing the 3rd movement of Wieniawski Violin Concerto No.2. 

Steven is 15 now. He is studying with my old teacher Gerardo Ribeiro. He goes to the prestigious Meadowmount School of Music every summer where a minimum 5 hours of daily practice is required. 

Steven's Meadowmount audition video in 2012, age 13 

The 1st movement of Saint-Saens Viiolin Concerto No. 3

A Serious Matter

Gawandhous Concert Hall, 1845

In 1743 a society called Grosses Concert (Grand Concert) started putting on concerts in private homes and taverns in Leipzig. Unlike how music had been played as part of the service in the church or of royal suites, this group of musician played concerts solely for the sake of music. They continued giving concerts in this fashion for 36 years until the Leipzig textile guild offered them their trading room as concert hall, thus came the birth of the Leipzig Gawandhaus (Cloth Hall) Orchestra, the first symphony orchestra in the world. On the balustrade above the stage in the old Gawandhaus concert hall a Latin phrases uttered by the Roman philosopher Seneca was inscribed, True Joy Is A Serious Matter. This has been the orchestra’s motto for 270 years. This is the most fitting description of music and all arts.