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Classical
Prodigy
Violin
Virtuoso Wong Yuuki is on the cusp of what promises to be a
brilliant career
Story by Marci Janas and photography by John Seyfried
Violinist
Wong Yuuki's fingers are a vivid shade of purple - a hazard
not of five hours of daily practice but of eating a hummus
sandwich with a side serving of red cabbage coleslaw. He
regards them quietly and grins, noting he will have to wash
his hands before he touches his violin.
Yuuki is 16 years old and on the road to success reached several years earlier by another Singaporean violinist-Siow Lee Chin. Like Siow, Yuuki has chosen to study with renowned teachers Almita and Roland Vamos at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in the United States.
And he is on the cusp of what promises to be a brilliant career.
He shared second prize for violin in the final round of the National Solo Competition (Junior Division), sponsored by the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) in March 1998. ASTA estimates that 1,000 contestants in violin, viola, cello, bass, harp and guitar emerged from individual state rounds. Of this staggering number, adjudicators winnowed the field to 209 semifinalists.
The ASTA competition was the first, and so far only, time Yuuki has played for a prize.
Competitions may be new to him, but they are old hat to the Vamoses, who have coached dozens of violinists to the upper echelons of music competitions throughout the world.
One ASTA adjudicator noted that Yuuki has the makings of a virtuoso and an artist. He plays with fire and poetry.'
Yuuki began piano lessons at the Yamaha School in Singapore at four, and he picked up the violin two years later. He has played both instruments ever since, though he decided at eight that the violin would be the means towards his career. 'It was the influence of Mr Wang,' he says.
Wang Chin Sing is a former violinist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO). Yuuki began to study with him privately at the age of eight, and he is a crucial element in the musical growth and development of the young violinist.
He is also an agent of change in Yuuki's life story. Wang suggested to the English violinist Rosemary Furniss, in Singapore as a guest soloist with the SSO, that she listen to his young protege. Furniss agreed.
Yuuki flew to England, where Furniss taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School. He stayed for a month, studying with her privately. With her encouragement, he auditioned for a place in the school before he returned home.
After that 20-minute audition, Yuuki's life changed. He left his parents behind in Singapore and studied violin in England for the next four years.
But Yuuki credits his mother with his passion for music.
'She has changed my life so dramatically by opening this whole new avenue,' he says. 'It really is amazing how someone can have so much impact on another's life. Both my parents have always been very supportive in every aspect, but never pushy.'
Now Yuuki lives in the US, attending a school primarily of 18- to 22-year-olds. His mother has interrupted her life in Singapore to live in Oberlin with her son. Yuuki's father remains in Singapore, where he is general manager of a trading company. His wife and son return to Singapore for several weeks during the winter and summer months.
When her son plays, Yuuki's mother says she is transported, if not to home and husband, then perhaps to her childhood in Japan. She sits rapt on the blue-carpeted floor of their townhouse apartment, listening to him negotiate the intricacies of Bach's Sonata No 2 in A minor.
He is practicing the first movement, the Grave. He apologises politely to me, explaining that he is sight reading and practising at the same time. He began to learn the piece only three days earlier and has not yet had a lesson on it, though he plans to play it for Almita Vamos the following week.
No one would expect even a seasoned performer to be note perfect in such a short time, and he is not. But when he nails a passage-and he does frequently-his sound is brilliant and luminous, like the play of light, silvery and shinimering, against bright blue water.
His
demeanour is as impressive as his sound. For all the
expectations resting on his slight shoulders, he is
remarkably good natured and at ease. His face registers
little emotion, and all expression is reserved for the sound
emanating from the violin. He does not so much play the
violin as will it to create lustrous music.
He is diplomatic when asked who his favorite composers are. 'None, really,' he says, though when pressed he acknowledges Bach as 'a genius'.
When asked why, he is initially at a loss for words but then reveals an intriguing insight. 'Bach has an atmosphere,' he says. 'The first movement of the A minor Sonata is dark and grand. It is exactly what it is called-grave-serious.
Yes, an atmosphere. Bach's polyphonic melodies suggest a grand mansion echoing with a multiplicity of voices, many of them grave.
Bach's atmosphere is one in which Yuuki is clearly at home. In 1994, when he performed in Bombay as soloist with the Bombay Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Stephen Potts, he played Bach's Concerto in E major for Violin. One critic, writing in the Times of India said his performance 'was poised and pleasing,' 'with 'an emotional intensity that's appropriately varied and expressive'.
Another word for emotional intensity is musicality. When a performer is said to possess musicality, it is high praise indeed.
Almita Vamos says Yuuki has it. His particular brand of musicality manifests itself 'as a sensitivity towards what the composer has written, and an ability to express not only that intention but something of oneself to the listener. His playing is very passionate and warm. His technique is very good, but his musical instincts, his feelings, are quite powerful.'
Yuuki first heard of the Vamoses from Singaporean organist Margaret Chen, and at 13, stilt enrolled at the Menuhin School, he found himself boarding a plane for a new country.
He played Bruch's Concerto No 1 for the Vamoses. Almita Vamos recalls hearing 'a free spirit. When he plays, you feel there's a naturalness, that he's playing from the heart.'
Deciding to entrust the remainder of his formal training to the Vamoses, Yuuki auditioned for the Oberlin Conservatory in February 1997, one month before his 15th birthday. One of 145 hopefuls for 16 places, he gained entry as a violin performance major with another major in music theory.
When he plays the Bach Sonata for her at her studio for the first time, Almita Vamos tells Yuuki she is impressed, that he is 'very nicely prepared'. When one considers he has worked on the piece for little more than a week, and that he plays almost entirely from memory, rarely checking the score, it is impressive.
After the first run, there is a certain amount of stopping and starting, usually to discuss fine points in the score. There is some discussion about 'a squiggle'-is it a double stop trill? No, 'it's actually a big vibrato,' advises Almita Vamos, unusual in Baroque music. ('I don't like to be aware of vibrato in Bach,' she says. 'It's too fussy. It should be used sparingly.')
She tells Yuuki his vibrato is 'beautiful, free and open' but she would like him to make it more subtle for the Bach. It's a question of taste.
She checks his technique in the mirror. Adolescent energy often coils itself in the legs, ready to spring free at any moment. Yuuki is no exception and begins to rock back and forth as he plays. 'Stand absolutely still!' orders Almita Vamos.
The hour-long lesson ends with a set of goals-six Paganini caprices by the Christmas holidays, some work on technique and an idea to prepare for an international string competition in early 1999.
The late violin maker and restorer, Vahakn Nigogosian, often told students at his annual string restoration workshops at Oberlin: 'Don't sleep. Don't eat. Learn.'
The same dictum might be applied to finely crafted musicians who perform their own intricate labours on finely crafted violins.
Yuuki no longer has time for his childhood hobby of building model aircraft. Although he studies piano at Oberlin, the violin takes precedence. In addition to weekly lessons with the Vamoses, he has a weekly studio class and sessions with the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra. He takes a class in Japanese at the Oberlin College of Arts and Sciences.
As a double major, he also spends a good deal of time unravelling the mvsteries of music theory. Here, he says, his proficiency at the piano is helpful. When he analyzes the theoretical underpinnings of a piece of music, he hears the music in his head. 'Then I visualise myself straightaway at the keyboard,' he says.
Ironically, the music he hears in his bead is not violin music, with its singular voice, but 'the many voices of the piano.'
Wong Yuuki is indeed on the cusp of a brilliant career, in the hands of teachers who continue to bring out his musicality while helping him refine his technique and expand his repertoire. The genealogy is rich and varied, and embedded in his musical consciousness. He will carry it with him as surely as he carries his violin each time he steps onstage.
There will be successes and setbacks, international tours and time constraints, all part and parcel of life as a solo performer.
But Yuuki has something extra, something beyond the musical lineage of which he represents but a moment in time, something beyond extraordinary talent, technique and musicality.
His parents chose the name Yuuki for their only child to honour the Japanese ancestry of his mother. The name means courage.
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