Music Scene
Violin master to grace Blaisdell stage
By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Violin virtuoso Cho-Liang Lin will open the Honolulu Symphony's classical music season with concerts Sunday and Tuesday.
Cho-Liang Lin With the Honolulu Symphony Halekulani Classical MasterWorks Series opener 4 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday Neal Blaisdell Concert Hall $15-$55 792-2000, 591-2211 |
Not that he was complaining about his current clime — a clear, briskly windswept evening in the midst of a fall season he described as "the nicest time to be in New York." It's just that the renowned violinist, a guest performer with some of the most well-known symphony orchestras on the planet (including our own Honolulu Symphony, on a few occasions), was really hoping for a little bit of the reliable Hawaiian sunshine he remembered well from past sojourns.
An affirmative "yes" to the temperature inquiry brought a sigh of relief, as talk turned to the subdued Big Apple Lin returned to just a week ago after a monthlong tour of Australia.
"I find that New York is a little quieter," said Lin, describing the current state of his hometown for the past 26 years. "People are a little more civil to each other. Here on the Upper West Side, it's calm and pretty OK, but you can tell something has changed. There's this imperceptible something that's there. The city is slower ... not as busy and bustling as it used to be."
Lin watched the events of Sept. 11 unfold live in his Sydney hotel room at 11 p.m. local time, eyes glued to the television until sunrise while frantically trying to telephone his wife and 8-month-old daughter halfway around the world.
"The phone lines were jammed for eight hours or so, and I was worried sick because I couldn't get through," Lin recalled. "I finally got through, but even for the next several days, it was horrible."
Undaunted, Lin continued with his tour, checking in constantly with his family. His pediatrician wife, Deborah, and daughter Lara will be with him in Honolulu this time.
"They missed me, and I missed them terribly when I was down there," said Lin. "It was a long enough tour, but combined with the horrors of New York ... " Lin's voice trails off. "I'm just really happy they're coming to Hawai'i."
Born in Taiwan to a physicist father and high school English teacher mother who were ardent music lovers, Lin fell in love with the violin at age 5.
"My little neighborhood friend was learning how to play the violin, and I loved what he was doing," remembered Lin. "I couldn't leave him alone whenever he practiced, so my parents thought, 'OK, let's give our kid a violin, too, so at least he won't have to bother our neighbor.' "
Mom and Dad gave him a toy violin to start with.
"Which, of course, I played for two months until it was worn out and I was given a real violin," Lin chuckled. His father encouraged him by toting home albums by violin masters like Isaac Stern and Jascha Heifetz for his son to learn from.
Still, as Lin grew out of his childhood — all the while learning violin fundamentals from a local instructor — it became clear that he would have to leave home if he wanted to improve.
"I had no idea how good I was, but I had confidence, because I was beginning to win local competitions and getting praise from other teachers and violinists," said Lin. "So I knew I was OK." More chuckles.
At age 12, Lin decided to move in with his uncle in Australia, to attend the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Privately, Lin studied for three years with Hungarian violinist Robert Pikler before finding himself in a master class taught by Itzhak Perlman.
More than encouraging Lin, "he shook me up very nicely because I heard the greatest violin playing I had every heard up to that point," remembered Lin. "It was astounding. To hear playing of that level changed my whole perspective." And his goals. Lin decided there was only one logical place left to continue his training: New York City.
"I knew that if Perlman went to The Juilliard, then that's where I wanted to go," Lin said of his move to the famed New York music college at age 15 in 1975. "I wanted to study with (Perlman's instructor) Dorothy DeLay. I auditioned with Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto — the one I'll be playing in Honolulu."
By the time Lin graduated from Juilliard in 1981, he not only had management representation in both America and Europe, but could claim professional debuts in New York, London and Philadelphia. Since then, Lin has toured extensively throughout the world.
"Every continent except Africa," said Lin, proudly.
In 1991, Lin accepted a faculty position at Juilliard, where he continues to teach and conduct master classes between tours. One of Lin's proudest achievements is founding the Taipei International Music Festival, a large-scale classical music event he launched in his native Taiwan four years ago.
For the moment, between planning festivals and going on tour, Lin is happily resting at home, eagerly reflecting on the joys and pains of fatherhood.
"In the days before the baby, I used to love going to the movies, playing tennis and going to baseball games," lamented Lin.
Which begged the question:
Yankees or Mets?
"Oh, definitely Yankees," laughed Lin, joking about his first baseball season in a long time spent watching the boys of summer from a sofa rather than a well-worn Yankee
Stadium seat. "I still want to go, though. Maybe one day, I'll bring my daughter there."
