Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - September/October 2015 - (Page 34)

MusicSix Weeks in the Woods at Tanglewood by JongHo Park online and talked with classmates who had attended it. The intensive study and high quality of instruction appealed to me, and I decided to apply. I began working on the necessary application repertoire. For several hours each day, I practiced Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations and Popper's Elfentanz, two technically demanding pieces. It was especially challenging to maintain the intense, brisk tempo of Elfentanz. After spending the winter and spring refining my playing, I recorded the pieces, submitted them online to Tanglewood, and waited. I knew I was competing with some of the best young musicians in the country and around the world, but when the admission decision arrived by email two months later, to my elation, I'd been accepted. I began taking cello lessons in second grade at the insistence of my parents, who wanted me to play a musical instrument. For a few years, the cello remained a hobby, a wooden apparatus I would fool around with for a few hours each week. Then, when I was 10 years old, I began working with a new cello teacher, Dr. Kim. She noted that I was able to play with great dexterity, which enabled me to play fast passages with ease. She told me I had perfect pitch and that my large hands gave me a natural advantage in playing cello. Dr. Kim pushed me to practice harder and to listen more critically to my own playing. With her encouragement, I became more committed to my music. I learned several advanced pieces and began performing in concerts and competitions, one of which led to my performing a Haydn concerto at Carnegie Hall at age 11. In middle school, I attended Juilliard Pre-College, a weekend program that features youth orchestras, private lessons with well-regarded instructors, and chamber music groups. In the fall of 2013, when I was 15, Dr. Kim told me about Boston University's Tanglewood Institute, located in the woods of Lenox, Massachusetts. Tanglewood's offerings include the six-week Young Artists Orchestra program, which features orchestral performances, master classes, and chamber music. I researched the program 34 imagine Toward Harmony and Balance I arrived on campus on a sweltering July afternoon, lugging my heavy cello case and my travel bag to Lenox Hall, where I met the other students with whom I would share a dorm. Students, faculty, and staff kicked off the program with a barbeque on the great lawn. Afterward, we watched the teachers perform a chamber concert, providing a spectacular sample of what was to come. Beginning the next morning, I rehearsed with the Young Artists Orchestra, playing in the middle row of the cello section in an 80-person ensemble. But as the music of Beethoven, Mahler, and Strauss filled the air, I began to feel overwhelmed. I wasn't accustomed to such challenging orchestral music, and I struggled to coordinate my reading with the conductor's beat and with the other parts. The sheet music in front of me seemed to jumble into an incomprehensible mess of notes. That evening, I practiced the new music in my dorm room, slowly going over the most difficult passages. After several days, I mastered the technical aspects of the orchestra pieces and sought to play them more expressively. During daily three-hour rehearsals, I listened not only to my part but also to the whole orchestra so I could learn to integrate my sound into that of the larger group and achieve the right harmony and balance. Sept/Oct 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - September/October 2015

Circuit Training Electrical Engineering at CTY
Turning Brainwaves into Action Meet ARTIE, the robot activated by thoughts
Robotics in the Real World How robots are helping us explore space, overcome disability, and so much more
My First FIRST The climbing robot that taught me to aim high
Adventures in Botball
So Much Fun, It’s Inhuman Destroying the competition in combat robotics
Born to Build The making of an engineer
The Engineering Summer Academy at Penn Three weeks that launched my future
Music in the Woods Six weeks at Tanglewood
Big Picture
In My Own Words Daniel H. Wilson, author of Robopocalypse and Robogenesis
Selected Opportunities and Resources
Off the Shelf Review of Obert Sky’s Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo
Word Wise
Exploring Career Options Interview with NASA robotics engineer Jaakko Karras
One Step Ahead Be fearless
Planning Ahead for College Express lessons in financial aid
Students Review Dartmouth College
Creative Minds Imagine Poetry contest winners
Mark Your Calendar
Knossos Games

Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - September/October 2015