This is the 13th in a series of interviews with the next generation of classical musicians ― ED
By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
In a concert hall, the mostly young, female crowd is wild and hyped up. No, it's not a rock concert ― it's Ditto, a male chamber group made up of some of the most promising young musicians to arise from Korea and the United States in recent years.
The Korea Times sat down with two Korean-American members of the group, violinist Johnny Lee, 29, the only ethnic Korean in the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Patrick Jee, a 30-year-old solo cellist who teaches at Roosevelt University in Chicago. Lee and Jee will be giving their first recitals here Thursday and Friday, respectively, before joining other Ditto members for a cross-country tour.
Jee: I live in Chicago; I don't see many Koreans. Even in Koreatown it's not like (Korea). I feel somewhat at home here.
Lee: I work and live in L.A. This is a good chance to come back and play music and you know, explore. I was here last year, and before that it was 15 years ago.
Lee: I started (the violin) when I was five. My older brothers were playing, and I wanted to play… (As an economics major at Harvard University) I was in research labs but it wasn't my passion. I couldn't wait to go home and practice (the violin). My mother studied music at Ehwa (Womans University) and knew how hard it was (to pursue a career in music). If I didn't give it a chance I thought I'd regret it for the rest of my life. I was 19, 20. But you know, better late than never.
Jee: I started playing the piano when I was three and the cello when I was five. I was torn between the piano, cello, baseball, hockey and just being a kid. My mother was a supermom and drove me everywhere, even to Montreal (Canada) for hockey tournaments. But I had to decide because it was too much and I chose the cello.
It was in seventh grade. I had a plan in junior high, to go to school in Miami on a seven-year medical program because at the time my favorite football team was the Miami Hurricanes. But I met a teacher who really changed my life. I locked myself in the basement and played the cello for hours and hours, and I haven't looked back since then.
(Jee graduated from Yale Universtiy, School of Music and the Juilliard School in New York. Lee attended the Cleveland Institute of Music after Harvard.)
Jee: Playing music lets you be the person you're afraid to be in real life. It's definitely all about characters and exploring different parts of your soul. When I'm onstage, it's me and the music, and the cello is kind of in the way, and hopefully he agrees with me about what I want to say. It just lets you let loose and be yourself.
Lee: I say ditto (laughs). I just feel like we're really lucky because it's not just a job, we're really doing what we love. I mean it's pretty physically grueling but it's such a blessing.
Jee: I'm a walking hospital. I had some issues with my back for a very long time.
Lee: When you work out it's important to warm up, it's the same with music.
Jee: If you think about it, music is the only thing that combines the physical, the mental and the spiritual. I don't know of any profession that's quite like that.