Playing for the world to hear: Vestavia Hills graduate returns to Carnegie Hall this summer

UPDATE: After press time, the Vestavia Voice was informed the NYO will move to an all-digital experience this summer, with virtual training and performances. For more information, click here.

When she was about 6 years old, Kyuna Kim saw famed violinist Sarah Chang in concert at the University of Alabama.

The experience sparked a desire in Kim to one day play the violin on stage in front of an audience.

So she started violin lessons and has since taken lessons all over the Southeast, including in Jacksonville, Nashville, Atlanta and Birmingham.

“It’s definitely changed over the years,” said Kim, now 18 and a 2020 Vestavia Hills High School graduate. “I started with Suzuki books and am now playing full-length concertos.”

Kim has also played in the state’s all-state orchestra and through that learned she much preferred being on stage with others, playing pieces as a group and collaborating instead of doing solo performances.

Kim set her sights on the National Youth Orchestra, funded and led by Carnegie Hall. The orchestra only has 115 musicians and selects the best young musicians in the country to train under professionals and go on tour to perform at various locations around the world, including Carnegie Hall in New York.

In 2019, Kim achieved that dream, and this summer, she’ll return for the second year in a row. She will be the only participant from Alabama.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I got accepted last year,” Kim said. “That was that point that all those years of practicing paid off.”

Last summer, Kim toured Europe and was able to meet European national orchestras, attend and perform at cultural parties and host ambassadors and senators as part of the orchestra.

“I definitely grew a lot as a musician,” she said. “It  was a lot of music to get through.... Everything was so much fun to play.”

Her first trip to the NYO didn’t start off smoothly. While she was on her way to New York, a woman behind her at a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint was slamming bins coming out of screening, including a bin containing Kim’s violin. The woman, in a hurry, Kim said, managed to break the fingerboard on the instrument.

While her dad started to make his way to New York, Kim played her first rehearsal with a broken fingerboard and said she could feel it slipping as she played. Without a working fingerboard, the instrument would be unplayable.

Thankfully, the instrument was fixed, and Kim was able to move on to more fun parts of her trip.

In between rehearsals while on tour, Kim said she and her friends would sneak off to get ice cream and get lost in Europe before eventually finding their way back, creating lifelong memories.

Kim isn’t sure where they will tour this year, given the COVID-19 pandemic. The musicians have been told they won’t be on any planes for the tour, but they will perform in some way.

Before that, they’ll undergo an intense two-week training session in New York where they learn the music that they have been practicing beforehand.

She said she’s looking forward to seeing her friends again and learn new music.

“The environment is just different,” Kim said. “Everyone wants to practice.”

While she hasn’t always enjoyed practicing, Kim said she would often wake up at “insane” hours just to practice.

Playing at historic Carnegie Hall may have helped with motivation as well. Kim said the venue is much taller than she originally thought.

With three stories of seats, she remembers having to tilt her head all the way up to see everyone in attendance at the NYO’s concerts.

“That was when it hit me,” Kim said.

Playing violin isn’t easy, she said, especially as students continue to advance in their skill level. When violinists first pick up the instrument, they see a tremendous amount of improvement over their first few years. But as time goes on, there comes a point where not much more can be learned, she said.

“I think it’s really difficult to make progress and feel motivation to keep going,” Kim said.

Her father, Jaedok Kim, said his family values music education.

“We believe music can contribute to the growth of children in so many different ways,” he said. “That moment she was in those venues with those top musicians was the ‘harvesting moment.’ She had put in all those seeds.”

Seeing his daughter perform with the orchestra was a rewarding experience, not just for his daughter, but for himself and his wife, Youngmi, as well.

“Our goal is to make music apart of their lives,” Youngmi Kim said.

When she returns from the NYO, Kim said she plans to attend Vanderbilt University. While she doesn’t plan to major in music, she might pursue a music minor. But even if her love for violin doesn’t lead to a college degree in music, she plans to continue to play as long as she can, even if that just means getting together with friends and pulling out old pieces.

“It’s been a huge part of my life.”