Learning from David Kim’s Masterclass 6/14/12

June 14, 2012

I am still in Kansas, performing and teaching at Sound Encounters Summer Music Camp. I attended David Kim’s Masterclass today. Mr. Kim is a Concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and presents masterclasses at schools and institutions all over the world. I attended a portion of his class (2 students), and I heard some interesting comments. 1) We should learn/practice our routine gesture before the performance, like some sports players do (Tiger Woods, for instance). We should master this routine to go into the mood to start playing. So each performance, we start this exact same routine. Mr. Kim himself practiced this routine in front of the mirror to establish his habit. So he goes through this routine before each performance. Also he emphasized the image training, again like sports players, even he imagines through how he would hug with the conductor after the performance. 2) How do we behave during tutti section in concerto?? We play/practice concertos often, but teachers rarely teach students how we behave during orchestra’s introduction and tutti. Those 2 points are not directly related to instrument’s playing, but they are very important facts to prepare a good performance. Also what I liked his class was that he does his class very simple and direct, but in a very positive way. Of course it was violin masterclass so technical aspects did not matter to pianists, but it was a very interesting class to me. New lessons everyday!