Oberlin Portrait: Sungmin Yoo

"Music is the primary thing," says violinist and Conservatory senior Sungmin Yoo. " It's who I am, it's what I do." Yoo recently played the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Oberlin Orchestra. Her love of music has determined the course of her life, and forced her to make difficult decisions.

She grew up in Seoul, South Korea, where she began taking violin lessons at the age of four. "My mother really liked to go to concerts, but my father doesn't like classical music all that much," Sungmin says. " She started me on violin lessons, thinking that if I play this music, I will learn to love it, and then she will have someone to go to concerts with!"

When Sungmin started playing, she didn't know what she was getting into. At 14, she decided to leave her parents and come to the United States to study with Rafael Druian, a former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic and Cleveland Orchestra. After living on her own in Philadelphia for two years, and planning to continue her studies with Druian at the Curtis Institute of Music, she decided instead to come to Oberlin to study with Almita and Roland Vamos.

"I had heard a lot about the Vamoses--a lot of great things about their teaching. But I also heard that they take students into their house!" For a young girl living alone, that was enough incentive to pack up and move. Because she was only 16 at the time, Sungmin attended Oberlin High School for a year before enrolling in the Conservatory.

Sungmin believes that her greatest strength as a musician is her love of music. " I'm not doing it for anyone else, I just love it, whatever I'm doing. I think that is so important, because if you love it, you will want to practice, want to be around it. And that is so much of what we do!"

Almita Vamos says of Sungmin: "I've known her for five years now. We definitely have a good relationship. I always look forward to her lessons because we have a good time together; I know I'm going to laugh!" When asked what her student's greatest strength is as a musician, Vamos says, "Sungmin has a very pure tone. It is very affecting, very moving. She also has a great attention to detail and line."

Sungmin plans to pursue a master's degree next year, although she is undecided as to where she will enroll. As for long term goals, she and Vamos agree that many options are open to her. Sungmin loves all venues for performance--chamber music, soloing, and playing in an orchestra.

What inspired you to be a musician? What keeps you inspired on discouraging days?

It's hard to tell why I play violin all the time. It's challenging, and there is no end--I can never say that I know everything there is. I can never be done with the violin. Every day, I practice and I figure something out that's new. I am only really in touch with myself through music.

What is the most memorable performance you have ever seen and why?

There are a lot of them! When I heard the Emerson Quartet, it was the first time I had heard string quartet playing, so it opened me up to that possibility. I would also have to say my first Vamos studio class, when I was 15 or 16. There were all these kids, playing so well! I'd seen it before at Curtis, but here I got to know them. And when it was my close friends who were playing, it was very inspiring.

If you could perform with any musician, living or dead, who would it be? What would you perform?

With Bach, definitely, and any of his music, because he didn't indicate everything--he left a lot of it to us to figure out. In a way, we are part of the composition process. There are so many ways of interpreting the same music, but I want to know how he would play it, what he would do. I want to know what he had in mind.

If you could master another instrument, what would it be?

Piano. I wish I had played when I was younger! It happens to be that I use violin to express myself, but there are more pieces for piano--I just wish I could play them all!

If you could not be a musician, what other profession would you choose? What profession would you definitely not choose?

Maybe I would work at a museum or an art gallery. I'm also fascinated by psychology. But I would definitely never do anything where I had to sit at a computer for eight or nine hours a day.

What do you listen to for inspiration? In your free time?

You're going to laugh at me! 'N Sync and Britney Spears. In defense, my car makes so much noise that I can't listen to classical music. At the end of a hard day, I like to listen to the Goldberg Variations. They always put me to sleep.

What do you like to read?

I like psychology books. Also romances.

What are three words that describe you?

Open-minded, passionate and emotional.