I had an amazing time in Korea and it was definitely an eye opening experience all around. I felt more pressure than I realized due to being a new face as well as having a tag of The New York Philharmonic on my back but having worked harder than ever before, I came back home excited with much to learn and explore. I must also mention and thank many who warmly welcomed me with many encouragements and support throughout the tour. With that said, here are some things I have learned:

Planning concerts:

I never thought I would say this but too much of a good thing almost have gotten me into trouble. During the planning of the tour, my manager and I thought it would be good to schedule as much as we could since time was limited and with few repeating repertoire, we were going to be just fine but we didn’t think enough about the time to rehearse with each orchestras, personal practice time and rest. 10 days and 7 concerts- perhaps not the next time around.

Practicing:

Prior to my arrival in Korea I was already on another tour in Asia with the New York Philharmonic for two weeks and practicing was a big issue due to our own rehearsals and many concerts hopping from different cities to countries. The only way to solve this problem was to be up super early and do as much and then some throughout the day in order free up some time to enjoy downtime with friends in the evening. My typical day with the violin was about 7 hours too long and this continued in Korea as well which created arm and neck pains but as they say, the show must go on!

Practicing on the day of the concert:

More to be elaborated on this subject but I have learned the hard way that practicing many hours is just not healthy all around on the day of the concert because I will definitely not acquire new skills by practicing madly on the day of! Having learnt that lesson on the first concert, I took out the dusty metronome again before concerts to just calm myself by going through passage works carefully and softly with the help of slow metronome work. Practicing softly is also important to save your arm from fatigue and sanity.

Before going on stage:

Eating was also very important- not too heavy but definitely not empty which was not only uncomfortable with all the noise it made but a bit of trembling from hunger. After this experience, I made sure to eat an hour or so before with healthy filling food which solved many problems. Being alone backstage was something I did not accomplish due to many friends and family visiting but I will try my best to accomplish this on my next tour and enjoy the time afterwards with loved ones. Being new being a soloist on tour with changing repertoire it was important to find the time to focus and quiet my mind on the day of the concerts, especially in the concert hall.

On stage:

Now this is something I could write much about but for now I will just share few things. Where to stand, how much to push the sound, left hand pressure, control of vibrato (I learned that there is one finger that just goes on auto pilot), breathing (I used to emphasize much on breathing out and yes it is still very important but because I was so focused on this, I forgot to breathe IN deeply), shoulder/neck tension, looking back at missed notes and asking why while playing on and then repeating the whole things again(!!!), refocusing, clean sound versus glued on sound (trying to play clean I sometimes played too into the string to accomplish focus and cleanliness but much of the pushing came with how the hall responded) and body language (the more uncomfortable I felt, the more movements I created which was shocking to see on video- this uncomfortable musical movements made some phrases weird and unnatural) were all something I started to think about as concerts went on and will continue to study.

Practicing now:

Which leads to how I practice now. I will leave this subject for my next blog but this tour definitely changed the way I practice now. With new love for my calluses which is awesome, thick and prevents sticky fingers, I decided to challenge myself with repertoire which were left untouched in my youth out of fear.

So! There you have it! I hope to talk more about few topics mentioned above but if you have any questions you’d like to ask me, please write to me on my contact page and I will be happy to answer any questions.

 What’s next?

Summer will be spent in whole with my family as this is rare and we look forward to traveling! ……...with the violin