Today we’d like to introduce you to Jayoung Kim.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jayoung. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
In December 2014, I was in the Medici villa in Briosco, Italy, a very small town close to Milan for a music workshop. We were about 10 people from Italy, Spain, England, USA, Austria, South Korea, China, and Serbia. We spent a week together preparing a concert at the end of the week.
Otherwise, we loved exploring this small town, great restaurants, cafes, and shops. In the whole town, we were only who spoke in English and it felt magical and foreign.
We performed a concert one afternoon for several hundreds of people, which followed by a reception where I could meet the audience over food. People who couldn’t talk in English, they would nod at me and said “Brava,” while the others impatiently came forward and started talking to me. I had many interesting conversations with Italians from not only Briosco but different towns, including Milan. This made a huge impact on me that music brings people together from everywhere, as food brings people, animals, and even insects together.
This inspired me to organize a chamber music concert in Wellesley. Why Wellesley? Because I was teaching there and the music school director was always supportive. I texted my friends if they wanted to perform a concert with me. They said yes. I asked the music school director if I could use a space and she also said yes. Everything happened in one day. I came back to Boston, we rehearsed for three days and then it was the concert! That time, we didn’t have a name. The school advertised it as “Jayoung and friends, Holiday concert.” Later the assistant director asked me what to call the group. I said “Wellesley Chamber Players?”
The audience was small but they all loved it. It was very special with the holiday spirits, friends, and food afterward. (The assistant director took a video of our last piece, “silent night” and it’s available on the Wellesley Chamber Players’ Facebook page.) I decided to embark the real chamber concert series in 2015 and this 2017-2018 is the third season. There are four concerts each season. We perform two or three major chamber pieces by Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Schumann, Faure, Dvorak, Chausson, and Mendelssohn. At the end of the concert, there is a reception where you can meet musicians and also other concert goers.
We have been helped so much by the Dana Hall School, Music School (old and new directors, Jennifer Gaul and Michelle Kiehl), and Phyllis Glazerman, Maureen Donlon, Mickey Goldin, Axie Breen, Paul Falcone, Susan McCraw, Mary Lefkowitz and among others. I feel my dream of having the Wellesley Chamber Players get integrated with the Wellesley community is slowly coming true.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
What do they say? No pain, no gain. I believe we learn and grow stronger from obstacles and challenges.
Wellesley is where I teach and love. I dream to have the Wellesley Chamber Players integrate with Wellesley residents and help the town’s culture alive. However, I don’t live in Wellesley, which is a real challenge. I do not know the townies. In the first season, despite all the effort, there were not many people in the audience. Some of the audience thought it was pity that there was not enough audience and helped me with publicity. The audience has been growing since with their help.
Another difficulty has been funding. Since I started it with no money, it was difficult to pay the artists and others. The concerts are free although we accept donations. I have been applying for grants. We’ve been lucky to win a grant from the Wellesley Cultural Council’s last two years, which helped us very much.
Please tell us about Wellesley Chamber Players.
The Wellesley Chamber Players believes that music is a universal language that connects and speaks to everyone. Music is an immensely powerful form of communication that can evoke many emotions, plant a little seed of joy or hope in us.
The players are internationally acclaimed musicians who have won top prizes from renowned international music competitions and have performed at the prestigious concert venues all around the world. The love and passion for music brings the Wellesley Chamber Players together and makes us work hard to make the most beautiful and meaningful music and share it with the audience.
The Wellesley Chamber Players are passionate and dynamic musicians who love life. Everybody loves learning and trying new things: music, food, coffee, arts and yes, life. Whenever we get together for music or for food, there are always many laughs, smiles, and hugs.
With this vibrant energy, we perform four concerts every season in Dana Hall School, Wellesley. The program usually consists of two major chamber music pieces, written for a combination of piano, violin, viola, and cello. On the December 10th concert, we performed the French composer, Chausson’s Concert for violin, piano and string quartet.
This season, besides our regular four concerts, we perform twice at MIT, Cambridge. We hope to become familiar with Cambridge neighbors and share our thoughts and ideas with more Cambridge neighbors.
The Wellesley Chamber Players:
Jayoung Kim, Jennifer Gaul, pianos
Stella Chen, Zenas Hsu, Luke Hsu, Danny Koo, Eunae Koh, Yoojin Jang, Jiwon Song, Geneva Lewis, Yuval Herz, Gergana Haralampieva, violins
Rosie Ventris, Wenhong Luo, Marthe Husum, Zhanbo Zheng, Jesse Morrison, Jessica Pickersgill, Jinsun Hong, violas
Rainer Crosett, Ana Kim, Stella Cho, Sujin Lee, Sasha Scolnik-Brower, Alex Cox, Audrey Chen, cellos
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I am happy with the way it has been going. However, if I start another music group and series somewhere else, I’ll make sure that I have a group of friends who support the cause and the project and there is also enough funding to fuel the project. 😉
Pricing:
- Our concerts so far are free for all. However, we ask for donations to help the cost of the concerts.
- Adults $20
- Seniors $15
- Students $10
Contact Info:
- Website: http://bit.ly/wellesleychamber
- Email: jaykimpiano@gmail.com
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/wellesleychamberplayers
Image Credit:
Axie Breen, Mickey Goldin
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