Julin Cheung’s musical journey began with a plastic recorder from a toy store when he was six years old.
For most of us, a European vacation wouldn’t include playing at a concert hall, especially as a teen.
But for Julin Cheung, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s new assistant principal flute and piccolo player and at 17 the orchestra’s youngest member, it’s almost second nature because he’s been performing so long.
Cheung played a piccolo solo at Saturday’s VSO free concert at Sunset Beach, in front of a crowd of more than 30,000.
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“I really enjoyed it,” Cheung said from Germany. “I’d just bought a new piccolo, so I was a little bit worried because wood instruments can warp or crack when they’re new, so you have to be careful.
“But it’s a really nice atmosphere. I’ve played a couple of times in an orchestra outdoors, at amphitheatres, but this is the first time I’ve played solo (outdoors) and it’s really fun, a really good energy.”
His solo was from the third movement of Vivaldi’s Piccolo Concerto in C Major (RV 443).
“It felt really good to perform a solo in front of so many people, but I’m glad it was a short movement, two and a half minutes, not too stressful.”
Cheung, an only child, flew with his parents to Berlin on Monday and stood among throngs of soccer fans on Tuesday watching the Euro soccer championship on a giant screen at the Brandenberg Gate.
The family took a train to Munich on Wednesday, ahead of Cheung performing at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland as part of a junior orchestra program.
“We thought we would just tour around Germany a bit, for a small vacation,” Cheung said. “Vancouver fit in really well right before.”
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Cheung likes orchestral music from the early 20th century, composers such as Igor Stravinsky and Maurice Ravel, but also enjoys baroque, jazz fusion from the 1980s, and K Pop.
His mom played piano growing up in Kazakhstan and his dad is from China. They moved to Seattle from Williamsburg, Va., when their son was two and the family would make almost monthly visits to Vancouver, coming to love it like a second home.
Cheung and his dad also enjoyed skiing at Whistler. So when he won an international audition for the VSO part, his folks told him they’re jealous he’ll get to live in Vancouver.
His musical journey began with a plastic recorder from a toy store when he was six years old. While watching a YouTube instructional video on how to play the flute, he noticed the instrument was made of metal.
His plastic toy wasn’t real, in other words, and his parents rented him his first real flute.
When the VSO hires new musicians, it first holds a blind audition of Canadian talent, with music director Otto Tausk and VSO musicians listening from behind a screen.
When there’s no one who stands out as extraordinary, the orchestra moves on to an international audition, also blind. That’s the one Cheung won in May.
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“First of all, we’re thrilled to have been able to offer Julin a permanent place in our orchestra,” said Angela Elster, president and CEO of the VSO. “There was a 100 per cent consensus that whomever this person behind the barrier was the chosen one.”
Elster wasn’t at the audition, but Tausk told her what stood out was Cheung’s artistry, virtuosity and a sound the music director felt was perfect for the VSO.
“You can imagine everyone’s surprise when it was revealed he was 17 years of age,” she said.
Because Cheung has one more year at the esteemed Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he won’t officially join the VSO until April.
“As I get to know Julin, I see he’s truly passionate about music,” Elster said. “I spoke with him on Saturday about how thrilled we are to have a 17-year-old join us — he’ll be 18 by the time he joins us because he has to finish his Grade 12 exams.”
Cheung, who had joined the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra by the time he was nine and won countless international awards, toured North America last summer as part of Carnegie Hall’s 10th anniversary of the American National Youth Orchestra.
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He was also featured in the New York Times.
The VSO has a music school, too, the only major orchestra in Canada that does so, according to Elster, and Cheung told her his main objective is to bring younger people into concert halls.
“I really love that.”
His performance on Saturday was brilliant, she said.
“Artistically, it was extraordinary. Not only his technique, but his artistry is extraordinary.”
Elster congratulated Cheung when he came offstage. “And he looked at me and said, ‘I didn’t know there’d be that many people!’
“It was so innocent and so beautiful at the same time.”
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Source: vancouversun.com
