Violinist Inmo Yang Photo: Sangwook Lee
We're getting used to being dazzled by young Korean classical musicians these days.
What's special about the latest Korean soloist to visit Aotearoa, Inmo Yang, is that the piece he's performing, and the conductor he's playing with, are also Korean.
Yang is here to play the violin concerto by Unsuk Chin with the Auckland Philharmonia under its Principal Guest Conductor Shiyeon Sung.
Korean conductor Shiyeon Sung with the Auckland Philharmonia Photo: Adrian Malloch
Speaking with RNZ Concert host Bryan Crump, Yang says the concert represents a reunion of sorts, at the bottom of the world.
"The three of us all live in Berlin, and we've had dinners together. I've worked with Shiyeon I think, two times, so far, both in Korea."
It's also an opportunity for Sung to show off the work of one of her fellow Korean composers.
When Crump interviewed her last year, she rated Unsuk Chin as one of her favourites.
The concerto is a brave choice too.
Crump plays the third movement, full of furious arrhythmic pizzicato, and notes so high they are perhaps beyond the hearing range of your average middle-aged listener.
"It's by far the most difficult concerto I've ever learned," says Yang. "Both physically and mentally ... I remember the last time I played this piece I had a blister on my index finger because I was practising hard - those pizzicati - and the blister popped during the concert."
Yang is trying to pace himself better this time.
Part of his routine is the get out of his hotel room and explore whatever city he's in.
In the case of Auckland, that's already seen him wandering down to the waterfront at 5am (thanks to jet lag) and meeting and talking to some of the locals out doing the same.
Auckland waterfront: Inmo Yang's already been checking it out. Photo: RNZ
"And sometimes I take a random bus and end up somewhere random and see where the city takes me."
Yang's career really started going places after he won the 2022 Sibelius Competition, one of the more prestigious for budding violin stars.
It means more work but also more travel, and Yang acknowledges sometimes the job can be a lonely one.
"We spend most of our time alone practising, I would say more than 95 percent ... the glorious image that you see on stage is not everything that we are."
On the upside, Yang says that solitude is also the perfect environment to foster creativity.
Ironically, one of the lessons that has really stuck with Yang is one from fellow violinist Midori, who during a masterclass challenged him to imagine he was playing for just one person in the room.
"What she was getting at was to really tell a story for a specific person. Because, you see, when we play for a thousand people or more, it's exciting to be on stage but sometimes we forget that music... can be very intimate."
It's something he still does from time to time. Crump suggests, given RNZ Concert is broadcasting his concert live, on the radio and online, he could imagine playing to anyone listening anywhere.
There's a lovely video (in Korean with English surtitles) of Yang talking about the contents of his one constant companion: his violin case.
One of the items is a letter he got after working on a river-cruise boat in Europe.
"There was this one woman who at the time had lost her husband and her mother, and she asked me to play a piece by Fritz Kreisler. It was the piece that got her through her hardships."
"I invited her to my room and I played the piece for her and she started crying and was very emotional. You know, like what Midori suggested, this aspect of playing for one person. It can be really rewarding, and I really felt the power of music."
Yang performs with the Auckland Philharmonia on Thursday 27 March.
We hope his experience of Auckland's bus system is a happy one, and that this time, he doesn't play Unsuk Chin until his fingers bleed.
Who knows, if you tune into Music Alive on RNZ Concert this Thursday evening, he might be playing directly to you.
