{"id":10167,"date":"2021-04-19T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/?p=10167"},"modified":"2021-11-13T10:08:15","modified_gmt":"2021-11-13T18:08:15","slug":"blogpostlynnkuo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/blogpostlynnkuo\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Violinist and Educator Dr. Lynn Kuo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What\u2019s the secret to making music fearlessly and joyfully? In our April 24th online workshop<\/a>, Dr. Lynn Kuo\u2014assistant concertmaster of the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra and founder of Violin with Dr. Lynn<\/a> \u2014will talk about what it means to be a \u201cMusical Ninja\u201d: how to harness harmony as your secret weapon in order to develop musicality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We reached Lynn at her family home in St. John\u2019s, Newfoundland and Labrador, where she returned as a professor in early 2020 and where she is currently staying during the pandemic-forced cancellation of the National Ballet of Canada season and of her freelance work in Toronto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You came to the violin relatively late, didn\u2019t you?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, my first instrument was the piano, which I began playing at age 7. At the time, my family lived in the small town of Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador, which had formerly been home to a U.S. Air Force base. I began taking violin lessons later, when I was 9, from a local fiddler. I started formal Suzuki method training when my family moved to St. John\u2019s [the provincial capital]. Most Suzuki students start much younger, at 3 or 4. When I started violin, I could already read music, because I\u2019d had two years of piano training. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I continued both my piano and violin studies until I was 17.  I then entered into my bachelor of music degree at Memorial University of Newfoundland. All first-year music students were required to participate in choir, and I fulfilled the requirement by accompanying the choir on the piano, even though I was a violin major! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve been in the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra for more than 20 years. How did you get the job? Were you especially interested in ballet?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went in completely inexperienced! I had never even seen a ballet when I auditioned for the orchestra. I was still in school, in the second year of my master\u2019s degree at the University of Toronto. I was aiming to win a section violin position in the orchestra, and I used the assistant concertmaster audition the week before as a dress rehearsal for the section violin audition. For my own selection piece, I chose to play the Bach Chaconne<\/em>. What was I thinking? To my surprise, I won the assistant concertmaster audition! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Lynn with her 20-year anniversary pin from the National Ballet of Canada.
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

How is playing in a ballet orchestra different from playing in a symphony orchestra?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a pit orchestra, it\u2019s imperative to keep your eyes on the conductor at the end of every number. Unlike symphonies, operas and ballets require the conductor to coordinate very tightly with performers onstage. Ballet dancers need very specific tempi and musical flexibility. The conductor watches for what the dancers need onstage: do they need a little extra time to finish a lift? Did the dancer land earlier than usual? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In traditional ballet repertoire, which can be extremely tightly choreographed to the music, experienced pit musicians will know to watch the conductor very closely at final cadences. Otherwise, it\u2019s tempting to go on autopilot and end up playing in an empty hole in the music, when the conductor is pausing to coordinate the music with a final movement onstage. More-contemporary ballets may not be so tightly choreographed to the music in this way. As you gain experience, pit musicians will know when it\u2019s important to stay particularly alert on the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have a favorite ballet?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes! I love Prokofiev\u2019s Romeo and Juliet<\/em> and Cinderella. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You also practice karate and you\u2019re a salsa dancer! How do those activities mesh with your musical life?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started martial arts in 2017. I was never really a sporty or athletic person, and I only started exercising as a young adult. After years of fitness classes, I found myself tagging along with a friend to a karate class at a dojo. Initially, I felt out of my element and overwhelmed, but I found myself returning for the next class. After all, they had given me a free gi and white belt! I never stopped going\u2014we\u2019ve been training online during the pandemic\u2014and it\u2019s now been three and a half years.

My dojo has a lot of musicians and dancers, and we\u2019re all very respectful of each other. The other students know I need to protect my hands! Martial arts training is not about punching and kicking; it\u2019s about cultivating respect, discipline, courage, and perseverance. I love the training because it instills these values, which I also bring to my teaching as a violin educator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight months after starting karate, I walked into the salsa studio next door, and I became a beginner salsa dancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That sounds brave!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My motto is \u201cFeel the fear and do it anyway.\u201d It\u2019s the title of a book by Dr. Susan Jeffers that peak performance psychologist Dr. Don Greene assigned me to read. \u201cFeel the fear and do it anyway\u201d has helped me approach the violin\u2014and life\u2014with a sense of fearlessness. I apply it to performing, in the dojo during a belt exam, in dance class when I\u2019m learning a new step. It also helped when I returned to St. John\u2019s last year to become a first-time professor. As a full-time orchestral musician, I was accustomed to being obscured in a pit or in a sea of other orchestral musicians onstage. All of a sudden, I was standing in front of university violin students looking to me for direction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also took this mentality while pivoting again during the pandemic. After my teaching contract ended, I ventured again into the unknown and turned myself into an online educator and entrepreneur. I now teach violinists exclusively online, and I\u2019ll be leading my third Violin Bootcamp<\/a> for advanced violinists between July 5 and August 28, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
REVISIT THE WORKSHOP<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Her motto: “Feel the fear and do it anyway.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":10174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,27,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mentors","category-strings","category-workshops"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMeet Violinist and Educator Dr. Lynn Kuo - Amateur Music Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/blogpostlynnkuo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet Violinist and Educator Dr. Lynn Kuo - Amateur Music Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Her motto: "Feel the fear and do it anyway."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/blogpostlynnkuo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Amateur Music Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/amateurmusicnetwork\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-19T17:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-13T18:08:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/wp-content\/uploads\/LynnKuo6-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"359\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nancy Friedman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AmateurMusicNet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AmateurMusicNet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nancy Friedman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/blogpostlynnkuo\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/blogpostlynnkuo\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nancy Friedman\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/#\/schema\/person\/d14ba0ef6921b07b8514c8d25ae771ce\"},\"headline\":\"Meet Violinist and Educator Dr. Lynn Kuo\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-19T17:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-13T18:08:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/blogpostlynnkuo\/\"},\"wordCount\":995,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/blogpostlynnkuo\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/wp-content\/uploads\/LynnKuo6-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"AMN mentors\",\"Strings: Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass\",\"Workshops\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/blogpostlynnkuo\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/blogpostlynnkuo\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/blogpostlynnkuo\/\",\"name\":\"Meet Violinist and Educator Dr. Lynn Kuo - 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