What impact did your experience at PMF have on your musical activities?

How long have you been living in Japan?

What made you decide to take a position in a professional orchestra in Japan?

What surprised you most about living in Japan?

My summers at PMF completely changed me as a person and musician. It was the first time that I had felt a sense of camaraderie in my orchestral experience and I truly can feel a difference in any orchestra that I play in now. I’ve never been the type to have a large amount of friends but playing in orchestras can always be a special way to form interesting relationships. When you’ve spent time with the other musicians around you in life settings, the trust and friendship that has been built definitely carries into a performance setting in my opinion. PMF was a pivotal moment in my development because of this experience. It has made making music such an enjoyable experience since then, and I try to always bring that type of positive energy and mindset to all of my future musical endeavors. So returning after many years to the place that inspired me so much is very exciting and refreshing.

I’ve been living in Japan almost 4 years. (2.5 years in Hyogo, 1.5 years in Tokyo)

I didn’t make a specific decision to come to Japan. It was a combination of timing and opportunity. In 2017 I passed the audition to join the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra and I was able to move to Japan with an exceptional level of ease due to the help from the Orchestra. In my second season there were many auditions happening for viola in Japan. I was a bit apprehensive because there was always this general view that most professional Japanese Orchestras aren’t very open to foreign musicians. I decided to try anyway as means to keep myself motivated and much to my surprise I won my second audition which led me to join the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in 2020.

Realizing how removed I can be from the outside world. Of course, I can stay up to date on various events through the news/internet but it’s not the same feeling when you are so far away on the other side of the world. For example, It was so easy to detach myself from many events happening in my home country. I guess it could be a good and bad thing but it was very surprising.

The most important impact PMF had was improving my skills and my way of thinking about orchestra playing. I came to Japan for the first time in my life to participate in PMF 2015. One year later, in August 2016 I was remembering my beautiful time there and I decided to audition for the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. I just tried to audition and see how it goes. I won, and since then I live in Japan. I have since had the opportunity to collaborate with musicians from PMF 2015 in chamber music concerts.

I have lived in Japan for 4 years, precisely since February 2017.

The result of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra audition was positive, so my desire to learn opera, ballet and symphonic music made me wish to move to another country and start this new experience in Japan.

I was positively surprised by the beauty of concert halls and how musicians and people work with such a lot of dedication for classical music. Also, the spirit of “team work” in Japan is very much developed. It was beautiful to discover how an orchestra office works and how they deal with everyday’s activities. Discovering convenience stores also was a surprise! In Europe they don’t exist so it is a very helpful service… Very convenient!
I like very much the kindness and the empathy of Japanese people. I’m very inspired by it and it makes me feel happy every day I speak with them.

Before my participation in PMF 1999 I had visited Japan several times, but when I participated in PMF and stayed here for a month, the experience made a huge impact on my adult life. I learned about how well organized Japanese society and its culture and this made me a fan of Japanese culture and society. In Korea, every male should join national military service and without finishing it you can’t travel overseas. When I traveled to Japan I had to have two co-signers among my relatives to make it possible. At that time I was with the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra in the second largest city in Korea. The day I took the audition in Seoul for PMF, it was an off day of the orchestra and I was able to travel to Seoul and I was the only one to pass the audition from outside of Seoul. During the festival, almost everyday I attended concerts by Vienna Philharmonic chamber players and concerts of world-famous artists as well. The cream of the crop was I got to spend time and conversation with these fantastic musicians from all over the world. It was dream come true….. a country boy who attended this famous international music festival with musicians from the United States and Europe − this was almost impossible without the gracious invitation I had to participate. I learned life-long experience of humility and self confidence which has guided my professional musical career ever since. I hope my experience at PMF will allow more younger musicians of the younger generation to have something similar and allow them to explore their dream in the future.

I have been living in Japan for 17 years.

I have two reasons;
1) when I learned about Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra’s vacancy information, I was a bit hesitant because of cost of airfare to Tokyo. But I promised myself that if the Tokyo Philharmonic invited six finalists, I would go, because “6” is my favorite number. And they invited six finalists and of course I was one of them.
2) the second reason was, at almost the same time, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, which is the best orchestra in Korea, posted an audition announcement. So, my original plan was to go to Korea first to adjust jet lag and take the Tokyo Philharmonic audition, but it happened two weeks before the Seoul Philharmonic’s. And I tried Tokyo first and won the Tokyo Philharmonic one. The Japan music scene was in my radar all the time and Japan is very close to my homeland.

In 1995, I learned about the Kobe earthquake. It was amazing scene when the earthquake hit the city and I saw how calm and obedient to government orders everyone were, and how they followed in orderly fashion. It showed me the great character of the Japanese and their highly motivated and developed personality.

PMF literally changed my life. The experience of being coached by such incredible faculty, and performing under legendary conductors like Charles Dutoit and Michael Tilson Thomas, shaped me into the musician I am today. Being able to play with and bond with young talented musicians from all over the world really expanded my mind to a broader understanding of music and life in general. That experience contributed greatly to my desire of wanting to play professionally outside of the USA. After my first summer in 1999 I went back to New York and immediately started to learn Japanese and more about Japan in general, in hopes that I someday would be able to play in a Japanese orchestra. In 2001, I joined the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. 21 years later I wouldn’t change a thing about the path my career and life took. So I guess you could say that the impact of my PMF experience was pretty great, because without it my life would surely have turned out quite differently.

I have been living in Japan for 21 years.

I always had a dream of living outside of the USA. After attending PMF for two summers I realized how much I loved Japan. I loved the cleanliness, the food, the culture, and most of all, the people. When I heard that the Tokyo Symphony had an audition one week before my third summer at PMF I knew I had to take it.

One thing that still surprises me to this day, is how easy and convenient the healthcare system in Japan is. So much different from what I was used to in the USA.

I felt like my experience during PMF 2003 was like the 1st time for me to play with a very professional orchestra.
The level was so high and we were able to play for world class conductors such as Bernard Haitink and Edo De Waart.
The concert experiences were so moving and intense!
Also during the summer of PMF 2003, outside of Sapporo, we traveled to and performed in Tomakomai, Hakodate, Aomori, Osaka, Tokyo with an extra project scheduled in Yokohama.
Even though the stayovers in each place were brief, I realized that every town and city throughout Japan has a completely different culture.
I felt that the opportunities to explore new places in Japan are endless and that made me desire to pursue a career with music here.

Currently, I have been living here in Japan now for 15 years!
(10 years in Kansai and 5 years in Kanto)

Actually, it was my attendance at PMF 2003 that sparked my interest to work as a musician in Japan. I really could see how much the audience and how many people in Japan appreciate all kinds of music, especially orchestral music!
During my college times, I was taking many auditions everywhere.
In 2005, I was very lucky to be selected by Yutaka Sado to start with his new Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra.

It is hard to say, but even after 15 years of living in Japan, I find new interesting surprises here everyday!