Tag: Classical

California, Christian Baldini, Concerto, Conductor, Music, piano, Soloist, Symphony Orchestra, violin

Roger Xia in Conversation with Christian Baldini

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On March 9, 2024, I will conduct a program featuring a new work by composer Maya Miro Johnson, Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 at the Mondavi Center, UC Davis. Below is a conversation with Roger Xia, who will be our soloist for the Ravel.

Christian Baldini: Welcome back, dear Roger! We have worked together several times, and I have known you since you were probably 12 years old. It has been a while, and I would love to know what you have been up to in the last few years. You are about to complete your degree at Stanford, aren’t you? Tell us, what have you been studying, and how have you managed to balance your college life and all of your musical activities as a violinist and as a pianist?

Roger Xia: Thank you Maestro Baldini, I am very honored to be back to perform alongside the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra! My last time playing here was at the UC Davis Picnic Day almost eight years ago. Time has passed by so quickly! I am now finishing up my senior year at Stanford studying Biology and Music, and I am also completing a Master’s in Biomedical Data Science. For music, I have been continuing to play in orchestras and chamber music ensembles with friends, as well as taking private piano and violin lessons. As a 2023 winner of the Stanford Concerto Competition, I was very fortunate and honored to perform Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 as a piano soloist with the Stanford Symphony Orchestra last May. In 2021, I played a duo concerto with my friend and classmate Richard Cheung with Stanford Philharmonia in Bing Concert Hall, and we also performed at the Bermuda Music Festival during our sophomore spring break. Additionally, I participated in the annual Thomas Schultz Summer Piano Seminar at Stanford every summer since 2021 and joined other Stanford piano students to perform at the Arnold Schöneberg Center in Vienna, Austria last May. Balancing academics and music has been tough, but music has served as an outlet for me and a therapeutic break from my other studies. I feel very grateful for these opportunities to continue pursuing my passion for music throughout college!

CB: How does it affect your musicianship to be equally proficient on the violin and the piano? What are some differences and/or similarities you encounter? How does that influence you when you play one instrument or the other?

RX: For me, Piano and violin really complement each other. While piano has given me a solid foundation in musical theory and complex harmonies, violin has helped me be more expressive like a singer with unique features like vibrato. When I work through a piano piece, it helps to think about how I would play a phrase on violin, connecting long lines and imagining colors. When I work through a violin piece with piano accompaniment, I am more attuned to what the piano part has and try to blend sounds together to make a cohesive performance.

CB: Let’s talk about Ravel, and his Piano Concerto in G. What are some of the features you like the most about this concerto? What would you say to someone who will listen to this piece for the first time, what should they listen for?

RX: I love the rhythmic energy, unconventional colors, and wildness of the concerto. I would encourage listeners to pay attention to all the solos in the woodwind and brass sections, the exciting snapping sounds of the percussion, and the intimate but tender second movement.

CB: When I last interviewed you, in February 2020, you mentioned that you enjoyed playing tennis and practicing Kung-Fu. Is that still the case? What other things do you do in your free time, if you have any?

RX: I still love to play tennis with friends when I get the chance! I have also been staying active and keeping up with martial arts in the Stanford Muay Thai Club.

CB: In that interview, you also mentioned that you were “really interested in science, and would like to simultaneously study academics at a university.” You also said that ultimately you hoped “to combine music and science to help others”. Almost four years have gone by now. Do you still agree with what you said back then, and can you bring us up to speed in how that may be happening in your present or future?

RX: Yes, definitely! Currently, I am involved in cardiovascular research and also performing music with Stanford Side by Side and local nursing homes and hospitals. Witnessing the power of music to bring smiles to faces and transform the spirits of patients, I would love to be able to investigate how music can be incorporated into medical research to ultimately improve care for patients.

CB: What is your perception of AI, and how it is being used nowadays in academia, school, and occasionally even in “art”. Do you believe AI will have positive, neutral, or negative consequences in society, and why?

RX: I think AI is a great and powerful tool across all fields. I’ve personally felt it being tremendously helpful when trying to query new information in a fast and efficient way, without having to traverse the internet myself. In the near future, I am optimistic that we will use AI responsibly to assist our ambitions and tasks.

CB: Lastly, do you have any advice for young musicians? Were you always extremely motivated and disciplined? Did you ever feel discouraged or have any desire to quit music? If so, how did you deal with it?

RX: Cherish the time you have to enjoy playing music, both individually and with other musician friends! I was generally motivated and disciplined as a kid, and I think these are habits and mindsets that anybody can embrace and is essential to improve as a musician. I definitely experienced discouraging moments throughout my musical journey, but during those times I took a step back to remember the joy and privilege to make music and share with an audience, which encouraged me to keep going.

CB: Thank you Roger, I very much look forward to performing this beautiful concerto with you and sharing it with our loyal audience at the Mondavi Center!

RX: Thank you very much again Maestro, I am so excited to have this opportunity to play with you and the orchestra again!

Roger Xia, a Stanford senior and coterminal student studying Biology and Music (B.S.) and Biomedical Data Science (M.S.), was a scholarship student in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) Pre-College Division and graduated from Davis Senior High School (DSHS). He started piano lessons at age 5 with Linda Beaulieu, and continued with Natsuki Fukasawa, Richard Cionco, Thomas Schultz, and Elizabeth Schumann. His violin lessons started at 7 with Dong Ho and continued with William Barbini and Owen Dalby. Roger made his Carnegie Hall debuts at age 10 and won top prizes in numerous competitions including Pacific Musical Society, Music Teacher Association of California (MTAC), Mondavi Young Artists Piano Competition, and was featured on the From the Top show 322. He was a National Young Arts Foundation winner and joined the National Youth Orchestra (NYO-USA) as an associate concertmaster and keyboardist.
Roger started chamber music learning at age 8 with Susan Lamb Cook. He attended the prestigious Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) Summer String Quartet Workshop and was a violinist and founding member of the SFCM Pre-College Division Locke Quartet. At Stanford, he has been continuing chamber music studies with the St. Lawrence String Quartet.
Roger was the concertmaster of the Sacramento Youth Symphony (SYS) Classic Orchestra and Premier Orchestra, California Orchestra Directors Association Honor Symphony Orchestra, Holmes Junior High Orchestra, DSHS Symphony Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (SFSYO). He has served as the Stanford Orchestra Committee Vice President and Social Chair, as well as the Concertmaster of the Stanford Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and Stanford Philharmonia. Roger has won concerto competitions and appeared as a soloist since age 8 with orchestras including Merced Symphony Orchestra, SYS Premier Orchestra, Central Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra, UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, Palo Alto Philharmonic, DSHS Symphony Orchestra, SFSYO, and Camellia Symphony Orchestra. Roger performed as a violin soloist alongside fellow Stanford classmate Richard Cheung with the Stanford Philharmonia (SP) in November 2021 as well as during the SP tour to Bermuda Music Festival in March 2022. In February 2023, he was selected as one of the winners in the annual Stanford Orchestras Concerto Competition and performed Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 with the SSO in May 2023. Roger is also a current member of the Stanford Side by Side singing group.
Aside from music, Roger serves as the webmaster of Stanford Team HBV and volunteers at the Menlo Park VA hospital with Stanford United Students for Veteran’s Health. He enjoys martial arts, ping pong, and skiing and loves to share his music-making experience with friends!

Cello, Concerto, Music, Symphony Orchestra, Uncategorized, violin

Soloist Profile: Eunghee Cho in Conversation with Christian Baldini

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As we get ready to perform Brahms’s Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, it is my pleasure to ask our soloist Eunghee Cho some questions about this piece, about music in general, and about his role as Artistic Director of the recently founded Mellon Music Festival in Davis, California.

Christian Baldini: Eunghee, it is a pleasure to welcome you back to your hometown to showcase you as our soloist for this marvelous piece of music. Tell us why you chose to perform this piece? What is so special to you about it? 

Eunghee Cho: I’ve found that collaborating with inspiring musicians on an incredible piece of music motivates new dimensions in my perception of sound and musicality. The double concerto allows for the creation of a sonic über-instrument from the cello-violin combo simultaneously manifesting alongside their unfolding conquest with the full orchestra. I can’t wait!

CB: And tell us about your soloist partner, violinist Stephanie Zyzak. How did the two of you meet, and would you say you have much in common with regards to music making?

EC: We first met in the context of a conductorless chamber orchestra. During our first cycle, we were both principals for Shostakovich’s C minor Chamber Symphony – a transcription of his 8th string quartet for string orchestra. I was absolutely floored by the anguish she vocalized in that opening movement solo. Within those first few minutes, I knew that it could only ever be a privilege to work with such a powerful artist.


CB: Tell us about how you decided to found the Mellon Music Festival in Davis. I had the pleasure of attending some of your events, and it gives me great comfort to see so many talented young people working together and offering high quality music performances. How did you come up with this idea, and where would you like to go with it?

EC: In a nutshell, Davis was missing an international chamber music festival and I had some buddies who loved performing chamber music! More specifically though, so much of the current climate of classical music appreciation is predicated on a snobby, elitist stereotype of the genre when in fact it can be one of the most inclusive and accessible media of expression. To combat the stigmas, our programming and outreach efforts actively exploit the inherent beauty and expressive potential of the classical genre. Beyond nurturing a community around dedicated festival engagement, we’ll make classical music in vogue once again!

CB: What are your choices for programming music? I noticed that in future concerts you will be performing more recent repertoire (works by Ligeti and Golijov), which seems like a welcome development. Are you planning on commissioning works in the future perhaps too?


EC: Of course you can’t go wrong when programming the classics, but we are also advocates of an evolving music tradition that embraces musical innovation, especially when we have the chance to pick the brains of living composers. I can only imagine how bummed I’d be if I found out after I died that I could’ve asked the 21st century edition Beethoven how to perform precisely his hugely varying dynamic and articulation varieties. In the past, we commissioned, with support from a Boston-based grant, two new works for the festival in our Spring 2018 preview concerts with the Holes in the Floor cello quartet. Commissions are certainly in our future!

CB: What is your ideal job? Where would you like to see yourself in 10 years?


EC: My ideal job would be spending my weeks alternating between intensive musical collaborations and work as a professional dog walker.

CB: If you had to give advice to a very young musician starting out, what would you say to them? What should they do in order to become a successful musician?


EC: A lot of the time it will feel like the music is kicking your butt, but if you can push through the temporary grind, the product is one of the greatest imaginable rewards. Also, find inspiration in as many of the oldies (i.e. Kreisler, Piatigorsky, Szigeti, Casals, Tertis) as your 24-hr days will allow.

CB: Do you enjoy reading? Sports? What other activities do you enjoy outside music (and besides dogs!)?


EC: Mostly resulting from a general paranoia, I tend to arrive at airports hours before my flight’s scheduled departure so I’ve adopted another hobby that can aptly be described as “people watching.” Also, I have hardly ever said no to a game of pick-up soccer.

CB: Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions. We look forward to a beautiful performance together! And maybe we’ll play soccer together someday (another passion of mine!)
EC: Absolutely my pleasure! See you soon!

eunghee Cho2W
Born in Davis, California, Korean-American cellist Eunghee Cho was awarded Second Prize and the special award for Outstanding Chinese New Piece Performance at the Alice & Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition in Harbin, China. He has also earned First Prize in the USC Solo Bach Competition, the Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award, New England Conservatory’s Honors Ensemble Competition, Sacramento Philharmonic League JAMMIES Concerto Competition, and was awarded top prize in the Classical Soloist category by Downbeat Student Music Awards.
He has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras around the country including the Sacramento Philharmonic, Cape Symphony, Atlantic Symphony, Symphony by the Sea, Davis Symphony, and Sacramento State Symphony Orchestras. He currently holds the Joyce & Donald Steele Chair as Principal Cello of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, and frequently performs as Principal Cello with Cape Symphony, Unitas Ensemble, and Symphony by the Sea. Eunghee has actively participated in classes at the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival and Académie Musicale de Villecroze in France and has worked closely with distinguished professors such as Steven Doane, Colin Carr, Myung-Wha Chung, Jean-Guihen Queyras, and members of the Guarneri, Emerson, Tokyo, Orion, Brentano, Borromeo, and Shanghai Quartets. 

 

As an avid chamber musician, Eunghee has collaborated in performances with artists such as Midori Goto, David Shifrin, Elton John, François Salque, and the Borromeo String Quartet, and has performed as a guest artist with A Far Cry, Da Camera Society, and the Chamber Music Society of Sacramento. Previous festival engagements include the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Taos School of Music, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Festival International d’Echternach, and Rencontres Franco Américaines de Musique Chambre in Missillac, France. He is Artistic Director and Founder of the Mellon Music Festival in Davis, CA.

Eunghee graduated magna cum laude and as a Steven & Kathryn Sample Renaissance Scholar from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance and a Minor in Biology. Following his completion of a Master’s degree at the New England Conservatory of Music he is currently enrolled in the conservatory’s Doctor of Musical Arts Program under the tutelage of distinguished pedagogue Laurence Lesser. His previous instructors include Paul Katz, Andrew Shulman, Andrew Luchansky, Richard Andaya, and Julie Hochman. He plays on a 1930 Anselmo Gotti cello on generous loan by Colburn Foundation. Away from the cello, Eunghee enjoys neighborhood pick-up soccer, everything about dogs, and dawdling in local coffee shops.