INTERVIEW Violinist Cho Jin-joo shares her love of music
Violinist Cho Jin-joo poses for a photo during a roundtable interview in central Seoul, Thursday. She will perform her own recital on the evening of Dec. 11 at the IBM Chamber Hall in Seoul Arts Center. Courtesy of Bom Arts Project
Violinist, artistic director and professor Cho Jin-joo talks about her upcoming concerts, passion for teaching young musicians and love of music
By Anna J. Park
Charismatic and vibrant violinist Cho Jin-joo will present her recital on Dec. 11 at the IBK Hall in Seoul Arts Center, her first recital in Korea in five years since 2014.
The 31-year-old violinist, currently teaching at Canada's prestigious McGill University, has recently seen many invitations back to stages in Korea to perform with many of Korea's representative orchestras, including the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. However, her own recital will be her first in Korea in many years.
Ahead of her performance this Wednesday, The Korea Times met Cho during a roundtable interview in central Seoul, last Thursday. Cho passionately shared her thoughts and ideas about this recital, teaching philosophy and her love of music.
The winner of numerous prestigious violin competitions, such as the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Montreal International Musical Competition, Buenos Aires International Violin Competition, and Alice Schoenfeld International String Competition, among many others, the young virtuoso hopes to share her memories of when she first fell in love with the violin and music itself.
Cho will perform Mendelssohn's “Sonata for Violin and Piano in F Major” and Schumann's “Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in D minor” at the first part of Wednesday evening's concert. After the intermission, she will play various beloved violin pieces, including Brahms's “Hungarian Dances,” Novacek's “Perpetuum mobile,” Wieniawski's “Scherzo tarantelle, Op.16,” Elgar's “La Capricieuse, Op.17,” Ysaye's “Caprice d'apres L'etude En Forme de Valse de Camille Saint-Saens” and Paganini's “Cantabile.”
“I hope audiences also fall in love with music after attending the concert because the pieces that I will be playing on Wednesday evening are all what made me fall in love with music. I chose pieces that I used to listen to incessantly, thinking how the violin could make such fantastic and beautiful sounds. I hope audiences could also feel happiness provided by music,” Cho said.
Violinist and McGill University professor Cho Jin-joo speaks about her love of music during a roundtable interview in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of Shim Kyu-tae
After the concert, she will stay in Korea for a little bit more for other appearances; she will perform for a Christmas concert on Dec. 24 in Daegu, followed by a New Year's concert at the Seoul Arts Center on Jan. 8 next year, performing Beethoven together with pianist Lim Dong-hyek and cellist Yang Sung-won. She will also play in Tongyeong in southern Korea in February.
Cho will continue her other concerts in North America, where she is based. She will present Barber's Violin Concert with Niagara Symphony Orchestra, followed by other concerts in Dallas in March and in Michigan in April.
While she continues her worldwide performance schedule, Cho is also focusing on her role a devoted teacher; not only does she teach at McGill University, followed her previous position at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Oberlin Conservatory, she has been shared her passion with more diverse students as artistic director of “ENCORE Chamber Music,” an intensive six-week summer program for gifted young performers. She founded the summer music festival was founded back in 2015, hoping to lead more young talents down the music path that she had taken.
“I hoped to share with young musicians what I had received from my teachers: how studying music can be happy and joyous. I have this special love and affection for the six-week music festival, because I myself initiated it; from administrative registering process to devising artistic programs, I have been thoroughly taking care of the festival. Sometimes I wonder why I go through these difficulties that no one asked me to do, but I am really happy during the six weeks, seeing students enjoying the music and the program,” she said.
“I also learned so much from it. For example, I had to learn how to do excel sheets, and also learned about immigration law. I feel my world is expanding with it, because previously I only focused on performances. I feel that these experiences of extending my perspectives would provide advantages as a performer, too.”
Violinist Cho Jin-joo is the founder and artistic director at ENCORE Chamber Music, an intensive six-week music program for young gifted musicians. Courtesy of Shim Kyu-tae
The zealous professor also gave a few tips for aspiring young musicians; she emphasized that they should not exhaust all their energies in the early stages.
“I see many talented young musicians burn themselves out too early. The fire and energy inside should burn continuously, once after becoming professional musicians. It's really sad to see cases of those who reached the burnout point in their early 30s,” she said.
“I think accumulating knowledge means to pile the firewood that could burn for a lifetime. If you exhaust this too early, then you might have difficulty to continue a productive musical career for a lifetime. I hope they have more patience and moderation. I hope they can enjoy enough space and time to grow as a true artist, who has their own ideals inside their inner core,” Cho stressed.
She also serves often as a juror at a prestigious competitions. She was a juror at a Montreal International Musical Competition in 2018, and will be joining the jury at the Alice Schoenfeld International String Competition next year; both competitions are where she received the top prizes many years ago.
“Becoming a juror gave me new sentiments that now I am on the other side of the competition, grading participants' playing. It is also very burdensome to pick out only a very small number of them. Some are obviously outstanding, but some of the participants have diminutive differences in their playing. I feel very responsible in grading them,” she said.
When asked what is the source of her motivation and energy, she answered without hesitation that it's love for music: “I really love music. Sometimes I feel pain and suffering as well, but it all goes away when I find the process of making and preparing music is joyous. They provide great power and energy to me.”