Connie Ho, SJYS Class of 2009
How was your overall experience with SJYS and how it influenced your life?
How has SJYS influence my life? Let me count the ways. On Monday nights, I shove some food down my throat, grab my violin case and stand, and run out the door for orchestra rehearsal at 6:30. Every Monday night. For 8 years. When I finally graduated in 2009, and the first SJYS-less Monday night rolled around, I stared at the clock and felt completely strange when there was no need to run around my house and out the door for the long drive to a long rehearsal. Actually, SJYS already took over my life even before then. In elementary school, before I joined, I would ride in the car with my brother to his Intermezzo rehearsals at the Civic Center, talking to my brother and parents on the half-hour ride there, sleeping on the half-hour ride back. As I grew, my experiences with SJYS grew too. I went from accompanying my brother to his rehearsals to being driven to my own rehearsals alongside my brother, proudly sporting my violin, to driving myself. I went from being let out at 8:30 with Ms. Morton after a theory session and waiting outside the Seniors rehearsal room doing my homework until my brother finished, to finishing at 9 to a disgruntled Mr. Kim who yelled at Tim Cho for not having enough rosin on his bow (and scaring the entire orchestra half to death), to being let out by 9:30, or 9:40, if we sucked and Yair was angry. From fighting Erena Kim for concertmistress chair in Prelude, to fighting Tim Cho for concertmaster in Concert Orchestra and winning (thus pissing him off, causing him to mutter to me at the concert that I was stealing his conductor handshake and orchestra tuning), to not fighting Tim Cho for concertmaster in Phil because I knew that he was much more talented than I was (and learning to enjoy his sometimes terrorizing personality). From camps making friendship bracelets, taking singing lessons, and playing pool volleyball at Walden West, to a peeling violin hickey on my neck and cramped shoulders from hours of individual practice, rehearsal, sectionals, and master classes at Mt. Cross. From SJSYO to SJYS, from Prepatory, Intermediate, Juniors, and Seniors, to Prelude, Intermezzo, Concert, Phil, Flute Choir, Concert Winds and Percussion Ensemble (...and now Chamber Orchestra?!). From watching, in awe, as Peter Hwang soloed "Butterfly Lovers," to being on stage myself performing Vivaldi in front of the audience with the orchestra as accompaniment. From being amazed at the camp counselors who could sit in on our rehearsals and sight-read our music flawlessly, to being a camp counselor at the day camp, sight-reading the music (sort-of) flawlessly and helping the students work through their ensemble music. From my parents and teacher forcing me to audition, and my thinking that Monday nights could be spend doing something better, to SJYS changing my life and leaving me with memories I will never forget -- to the point that I even wrote my college application essay on my experiences with SJYS.
SJYS has completely shaped the way I listen to, work with, play, and create music. I am proud to admit that I love classical music, no matter how nerdy or "uncool" some of my friends might say it is. I have heard and played Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" so many times I want to throw up if I happen to hear it on the radio (if only because it's so catchy that I'm stuck with it in my head for days). When I heard Carmen Overture in the background of a scene in the movie Up, I thought of Axel Strauss soloing Camen Fantasy on tour. It's almost impossible for me to listen to a classical station on the radio and not say, at some point, "Hey! I played that with SJYS!" or "Hey! I heard that at an SJYS concert!" My experiences in orchestra have enabled me to use music as a means of communication with those around me (including those in foreign countries we may have difficulty expressing ourselves to in words), created priceless friendships, and taught me to work with and lead others in a section. 8 years, 6 conductors, tons of sectionals, endless seating auditions, millions of concerts, and infinite rehearsals, extra rehearsals, and even more extra tour rehearsals later, SJYS has definitely changed my life for the better.
What do you do currently?
I am currently a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, major in Computer Science and minor in Biophysis and Music. I volunteer at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and I do research at a Computational Biology lab on campus; in terms of extracurriculars, I play in a quartet in Penn Chamber, am in Penn Engineers Without Borders, Penn Chinese Music Society, Society of Women Engineers, etc. In my free time I like taking pictures of people, places and food.
Tour experiences you want to share
I find it nearly impossible to try to pick out the best memories from what may be the best 2 weeks of my life so far and the very close second-best 2 weeks of my life (if only because half the orchestra got sick on the South America tour...). Here are some memorable moments:
2007 Eastern Europe tour: I specifically remember one especially rewarding moment. After the final performance of the infamous Tchaik 4 in the Chopin Conservatory of Music in Warsaw, the orchestra stood to receive a full house standing ovation. The true reward, however, did not come until after the audience began to file out and the musicians started returning to the dressing rooms. As I stepped off the stage, an elderly woman came up to me, grabbed my hand and, shaking it excitedly, said with fervor, "Thank you so much for an excellent performance! You are all such talented musicians." Seeing the direct impact of the music that I help create is the ultimate reward that fosters my desire to continue playing. On a lighter note, here are a random list of memories that I can think of at this moment: the tour guide of Bus 1 standing in front of one of the concert halls by a pile of dog poo yelling "shit alert!" in a heavy British accent as we all walked by on our way to rehearsal; listening to Justin Li sing a super-high A on one of the dinner cruises, and watching him stick his entire fist into his mouth; walking miles to a McDonald's because we craved familiar food so badly; getting to listen to and watch Justin and Alvin sing and dance to their ipods on the top level of the bus during the long drives; swing dancing and running around looking at the insane amount of food (but being too full to eat any of it) at the Ambassador's house on 4th of July; helping Alice Jih french-braid Larry Wen's hair before a rehearsal (and having him keep it that way the rest of the day); Elaine Higashi marking everyone's music during rehearsal with a huge pencil that someone bought from a street stand the day before.
2009 South America tour: watching Eric Kao chug a disgusting glass full of stuff we mixed together from items on the table for 10 Chilean pesos; getting the best gelato in the world, and trying (and failing) for the rest of the tour to find the same store in every other city we went to; crazy gourmet hot dogs being sold in Chile like fast food is sold in the U.S.; meeting, trying to communicate with, and having loads of fun playing music with the Chilean National Youth Orchestra; eating French fries, and more French Fries, and even more French Fries at every meal; seeing an elderly woman cry with joy and little kids clap their hands during our very last, free concert in a poorer local area in Argentina? (don't remember where this was); dogs, dogs, and more stray dogs everywhere; being sick and missing the rehearsal where the orchestra pulled a prank on Axel and started playing Stars and Stripes during his solo; the very fun and entertaining Tango show; getting to ride my first horse ever, but being given a very small, slow and stubborn horse at that; convenient stores everywhere open "25 hours a day," last meal together with the orchestra: Empanada party! What a way to end my life in SJYS.
And for both: taking way, way too many pictures during the tours and making everyone angry as they wait for me to post them.
Being one of the winners of the 2008 Young Artist Competition and also having the opportunity to perform in a master class with Max Zorin at camp was very memorable to me. Also, just this past weekend, a group of friends and I got together (including my brother, cellist, also SJYS alumni) to busk for fun in a park in downtown Philadelphia (where I currently go to school). After playing for only an hour, despite the intense 103-degree heat causing us to sweat all over our instruments, the wind blowing our sheet music all over the place, and the fact that only two of us had stands and the other two were reading music from the ground, we still had tons of fun -- and made 40 dollars. People constantly passed by and stopped to listen to us play, and several approached us to ask the name of a composer for a piece, or to talk to us about the instruments, or to ask if we were music majors and what school we went to. We even spontaneously played Canon in D for a wedding procession that was taking pictures in the park -- to the immense pleasure of the bride. I have learned that having the opportunity to impart the beauty of music to others, not just the applause at the end of a performance, is the true reward of music. I feel this is quite a noteworthy achievement to us :).