David Kim: Philadelphia Orchestra

Concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra for the past 26 years, violinist David Kim joins host Katrina to share his stories of studying with Dorothy DeLay, challenges he faced in his career, his journey to the Philadelphia Orchestra, the important roles of a concertmaster, and his advice for aspiring professional musicians.

For more information on David Kim: davidkimviolin.com

Transcript

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Backstage Classical Career Conversations Podcast. I'm your host, Katrina Stroud, and I'm a classical violinist who started playing at the age of three.

I graduated from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University with my bachelor's in violin performance, and I'm pursuing my master's in music at the University of Michigan. In this series, I invite esteemed classical musicians onto the show and interview them to tell their stories and give advice to share with others and preserve their legacies. 

Today, I'm joined with violinist David Kim, the concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra for the past 26 years. He studied with Dorthy Delay starting at the age of eight and graduated with his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Juilliard School. He has performed with orchestras in nearly every continent and performed solo with the Philadelphia Orchestra at home and on tour. He makes concerto, chamber music, and festival appearances around the world and teaches master classes at conservatories and schools such as the Curtis Institute, Juilliard School, and Shanghai Conservatory.

His first book, The Audition Method for Violin, was released in 2022 and includes standard orchestra excerpts with his suggestions on fingerings, bowings, execution, and audition strategies. Mr. Kim is a violin professor at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings and frequently serves as an adjudicator at international violin competitions such as Menhuin and Sarasate. 

During your time at Juilliard, what are some of your favorite Dorthy Delay memories or stories that you have of her?”

Some warmest memories I have, you know, Dorthy Delay was one of the great teachers of the 20th century, and she had so many students -- and great students. So I think some of my warmest memories were those rare moments where she and I had really just us time, meaning late nights, because she taught -- she would get in like in the middle of the afternoon, like three or four, and then she would just teach till very late at night. And then usually the last person was around 11, 11:30 midnight.

And she would give that person a ride home. And some of my best memories of really like personal lessons were on those late night lessons. Sometimes during the day, there would be people waiting outside her studio, or during our lesson, we'd be interrupted multiple times by people asking like, when do you think the next lesson starts?

Or, you know, just it would be just this constant interruption. And there are people observing lessons and maybe a pianist. But if it were just she and I, those were the moments I really treasured.

What was her teaching style like and what was she like as a teacher?

Well, you know, when you have so many students and so many gifted students, I think her strategy was to allow each student to shine in their own way. It wasn't like, well, this is the way I learned when I was in school, or I'm from the Franco-Russian school or whatever. She was very encouraging and just very clever, sometimes in, I wouldn't say pitting us against each other, but like I remember, I was going to enter the concerto competition for Stravinsky Concerto, very difficult.

And so I was learning it and I was taking my time, even though the competition was coming up. And only one other student of hers was learning it and getting ready for the competition. Her name was Robin Mayforth, a wonderful violinist in California now.

I went in for my lesson and I was still using music and it's four movements. I was kind of like, well, I brought the first two movements and I'll bring the last two next time. And she was like, okay.

And she said, you know, Robin has already memorized the whole concerto. And that just lit a fire under me. And I just felt like that competitive thing kind of come up in the back of my throat.

I was like, oh, really? And I just got to work and started, you know. And she didn't do it in a malicious way or really trying to pit us against each other. 

But she just did it in a way like, oh, well, you know, kind of very sweet. And that was kind of the way Dorthy Delay was. She was like a grandmother or your favorite aunt, somebody that you just adored and you wanted to spend time with her.

And that's the way she was. And we all adored her. We all loved her.

And I think part of her success might have been that we were all competing for her praise and love and encouragement. You know, we'd come out of the lesson and be like, yeah, Miss Delay was, I don't know, I think she was crying a little. I was, you know, I played slow movement of Brahms Concerto. She might have been crying a little bit. I don't know, whatever. You know, stuff like that.

We were like, we wanted to have Miss Delay say, you know what, honey, I'm going to make a call for you. And I think you should be giving a recital in New York this year. She had that power.

And so she would use that power once in a while to motivate us.

Wow, that's amazing. And she's had such an incredible legacy. How did you start studying with her? How did you first meet her?

Forgive me, Katrina. I'm going to have to go way back, literally before birth. My mom was a pianist from her native Korea.

My parents were too poor. They were still students. And I'm sure it existed, ultrasound, but they couldn't afford to find out whether it was a boy or a girl.

But my mom was like, I'm going to have a boy and I'm going to train that boy to become concert violinist. So when I was born, she was so relieved that she indeed had a boy. And then when I turned three, Santa Claus brought me a one-eighth size violin.

And I mean, I started practicing like one hour a day, teacher coming every single day to our home. And then by the time I was about six years old, we had moved to a small town near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where my mother was a college professor teaching piano. And when they were looking for a violin teacher at that college, Clarion University, she made it her point to make sure that they hired a violinist who was a former student of Dorothy Delay.

And when he went to a different school, she again made sure that the next teacher was a former Delay student. That teacher was named Paul Statsky. And I kind of lost touch with him, but he called Dorothy Delay when I was about seven.

And he said, Mr. Delay, I have a young boy. I think he's pretty gifted. And I'd like you to listen to him as possible, because I think his parents would be very keen on him studying with you. 

And she called everybody honey. And she said, honey, to Paul, she said, I just have one question for you, because right now I have such a full class and a really gifted group. So not really a lot of room in my studio.

But I have one question for you. Is his bow straight or does he have a crooked bow? You know, crooked bow or straight bow, parallel to the bridge?

And he was like, well, I have to say, to be honest, I think his bow is just a little crooked. And she said, you know, that's okay, he's only seven years old. But tell you what, once you work on it for about a year, call me back and I'll see, maybe I can find room to listen to him then.

And my mom was such a monster. I mean, I was crying bitter tears every day. She was screaming at me.

I mean, Ms. Delay thought it would take about a year to fix this. And within one week, I went back to my next lesson. My lessons weren't far away.

My mom made sure that we rented a house that had a little apartment over the garage. And she always rented that to whoever the violin teacher was. So I only had to walk upstairs for my violin lessons.

And so one week later, I went back and he looked at me and he was like, it's fixed already? And I was crying because it was so painful. It was just through sheer force that she straightened my bow out.

And then a few months later, I went and I auditioned for Dorthy Delay. She accepted me, and that was how I first started studying with her when I was eight years old. And I stayed with her all the way through bachelor's, master's and even after I graduated all the way until she passed.

Wow. It's an incredible story. Thank you so much for sharing that.

And it just goes to show how much commitment your mother had, which is amazing. And obviously you're very successful now, so it worked.

There's always collateral damage. There's always some emotional baggage or something for us musicians with these tough parents.

Oh, yes. Yes, for sure.

That's why I'm such a big fan of yours, because you have that nice, wonderful, positive attitude.

Thank you. Thank you for saying that. So after you graduated your masters at Juilliard, what were some of your career goals and plans?

From the time I started studying with Ms. Delay, my parents, they basically had it determined, oh, he is going to be a concert violinist, a soloist. And I was a bit of a child prodigy. I was playing a lot of wonderful concerts.

She was giving me a lot of opportunities. And then, well, I have to go back in the story, but when I was 14, my mother passed away from cancer. And I was an only child.

My father wanted more children, but my mother refused because she said that would be a huge distraction to my music. So here I was, an only child, and I kind of was lost for a few years. No matter where we lived, we lived in South Carolina for about five years.

I would fly to New York on weekends to go to Juilliard Pre-College by myself. Then we moved to Buffalo during my high school years, my dad and I. And from there, I flew every weekend back and forth to New York to Pre-College, which only meets on Saturdays.

So I was pretty lost and depressed. And I remember my first lesson, I was only 17, I graduated from high school a year early. And I went to my first lesson with Mr. Delay.

And she said, you know what, honey, put the violin down, let's talk. And she said, you know what, we need to make a plan because she knew that I was lost and depressed. And, you know, just it was a horrible time in my life.

And she said, you know what, the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow, which at that time was kind of like the Olympics of music, is coming up in two years, 1982. That's a little too soon. In 1986, let's make it your goal to go there.

In six years, and your goal is to make it to the final 12 and win one of the top eight prizes. They give eight prizes. And it kind of woke me up.

And for six years, we really prepared. I really practiced. I woke up and I went in 86, and I won one of those prizes.

I won the sixth prize. And it kind of got me started on somewhat of a solo career. And so for many years, I was playing concerts and, but gradually as the years passed and I started entering my mid and then late 20s, the important concerts started to trail off and more kind of small town things, which are not bad, but not really the goal I had in mind. That's what started happening. 

So I was living in New York City, and I was basically living a lie. I was trying to give off the impression to all my friends and people that I was having this gigantic solo career but I wasn't really playing in Paris, France. I was playing in Paris, Texas, you know. 

I was like so fake because I would be playing at a little library in Long Island for $400 and I'd come back and I'd be like, yeah, I just got back from tour, you know, just stuff like that. And then I was freelancing.

I was basically saying yes to everything that came along. Oh, well, we're introducing a new line of toys at FAO Schwartz, the big toy store in Manhattan. Would you want to play children's songs on the violin next to the people trying the toys?

I was like, I'll do it. Oh, this is an Italian restaurant. Would you be willing to play some Italian arias, strolling violin?

I'll do it. Just anything. 

Do you want to teach at Suzuki camp? Do you have any experience Suzuki? I was like, oh yeah, I'm a big Suzuki person. Meanwhile, I had never done Suzuki method.

Just many, everything that came along, I said yes. And later on in life when I was finally on that stage here in Philadelphia Auditionings and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the rounds were so hard. It was so much repertoire, so much pressure.

And I looked back and I thought, wow, if I hadn't done even one of those things back then, whether it was helping to introduce a new Oscar de Llorente perfume at Bloomingdale's or playing at somebody's wedding in somebody's living room in Queens. If I hadn't done all that stuff, I wouldn't have the fortitude, the experience to come up here and just be able to pivot and try different things. And if they asked for something, sure, I can do that.

All that experience came into my success.

That's incredible. I had no idea. And I need to look up some of these videos. Maybe I can find an old video of you playing in a perfume commercial or something.

You've told me in the past that you were also part of a trio. Who is in that and what was that part of your career like?

Well, that was wonderful. That was in my 30s. And that was called the Diaz String Trio.

And the violist was Roberto Diaz. He's the long-time president of Curtis Institute of Music, but also an incredible concert violist. And he was a long-time principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra and principal of the National Symphony. Also faculty at Rice, faculty at Peabody, graduate of Curtis, just incredible track record. 

And then his brother, Andres Diaz, was a solo cellist who was a student of Larry Lesser at New England Conservatory, incredible concert cellist. The three of us had a trio and for five years, we were kind of tearing it up.

We were playing a lot of concerts, recording, touring. It was amazing. And I think if we had stayed together as a trio, we would have been pretty special.

But I realized that my personality, for whatever reason, was not suited to be 1,000% dedicated with chamber music group and nothing else. I still had that need that I still wanted to play solo concerts. I still wanted to kind of a little bit be in the limelight.

And so I resigned after about five years. But those five years also were critical to my becoming the Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster. There's no way without all those musical lessons, those personal lessons that I would have had the success and be able to win that audition in Philly without those five years in the Diaz trio.

Yeah. Chamber music teaches you so much. What were your first few orchestra auditions? And what were they like once you decided to do them?

The way I decided finally to join an orchestra was, I was already now in my early 30s. And I'm really not playing a lot of concerts. I'm really spending a lot of time cooking and playing golf.

And my wife was now working. And so she'd come home dog tired after a full day of work in corporate America. And I would cook her dinner.

One night we went to see a movie called Jerry Maguire, which stars Tom Cruise. And something in that movie plot had a similar feel to what I was going through. He was a sports agent and he was kind of trying to go all the way up to that top level and maintain traction, but he couldn't quite stay there.

And he finally bottomed out, then he met the girl, and then he somehow redeemed himself, you know, kind of the Hollywood success. But that movie really resonated with me. And that night after we watched that movie, I think I was about 32, 33, I came downstairs in the middle of the night and I had an epiphany.

And that epiphany was, David, you are not going to be a soloist. You are not going to make it as a concert violinist only. And so the next morning, I told my wife, I said, honey, I'm going to try to join an orchestra and become a concertmaster.

And so I was again, very naïve and kind of full of myself. And I thought, oh, no problem. I'm a really good violinist.

I've had success in competitions, all this. No problem. I'm going to just go and nail my first audition.

And the first one that came up with Chicago Symphony Concertmaster. And I went and I was out in the first round in about five minutes. And then Cincinnati Symphony Concertmaster.

First round, maybe six minutes, I was out. I did Cincinnati twice. And then I did New Jersey Symphony Concertmaster.

And I got to the finals on that one. And then I started to feel like I started to understand that it wasn't just, you know, good violin playing. You have to kind of understand the language of orchestral playing and that whole culture.

And then I went to Chicago again for Concertmaster. Again, did not advance or anything. And then my wife gave me some great advice.

She was like, well, you know, maybe you could get a little experience as an associate concertmaster and then move up to concertmaster. And that was a little bit of a hit to my ego because again, dumb me, I thought, oh yeah, I'm going to just step right into a big concertmaster role and get a fancy sports car and get season tickets to the Bulls and all that stuff, but she was right. And so I went to audition for the concertmaster of Fort Worth Symphony in the morning and then took the 40 minute drive across I-35 to Dallas and auditioned for associate concertmaster in Dallas that afternoon.

And on the same day, I won both auditions. And I decided to go for Dallas only because I just felt like I would probably have some opportunities to sit concertmaster there and a little bit bigger orchestra than Fort Worth, maybe just a little bit more travel or just a little bit bigger experience. And so we moved down there and within one year, Philadelphia called and they'd been looking for two years for a new concertmaster.

And they invited me for a private audition. They were having many auditions but unsuccessfully. So they were starting to do kind of invitation-only auditions.

And this round was associate concertmasters from Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, you know, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, myself, you know, from around the country. And we all came and it was a miracle. I just couldn't believe it.

Like, I was so sure I had no chance. I stayed up all night the night before the prelims in the hotel right across the street from the hall, the then hall, the Academy of Music. And I emptied the minibar.

I drank all the little bottles of scotch and bourbon in there. And I watched TV and I was just like, I had no chance. And then I went the next morning and somehow I was in the semi-finals.

And then somehow I was in the finals. And they have two rounds of finals and I was in the final finals. And then they said, okay, it's down to two people.

We want each of you to come back for two weeks, trial period, three or four months later. And then I did come back in the spring. And that's when I was told I won the job.

Wow. 

26 years ago.

That's an incredible journey. What was that audition in Philadelphia like?

It was a truly inhumane audition list. There were no excerpts. It was just full symphonies, like all the Brahms symphonies, seven or eight Beethoven symphonies, all the Strauss tone poems, La Mer, all the Concertmaster solos, Beethoven, Missa Solemnis, Bach St. Matthew Passion, Heldenleben, Zarathustra.

I mean, it was just all of them. Then first movement of Brahms concerto, everybody had to play. And then your choice, full romantic concerto. I chose Tchaikovsky. And then full Mozart concerto. That was, yeah, that was the list.

Wow. And how long was your audition like?

The pre-prelim was only about eight or nine, maybe 10 minutes. And then semi-finals, maybe 12 minutes. Just a little bit longer.

First round of finals, maybe 15 minutes, 20 minutes. And then final finals or superfinals, as we call them. Maybe another 20 minutes or so.

The conductor at that time, in my humble opinion, the greatest conductor I've ever played under, the greatest musician I've ever worked with, Wolfgang Svalisch, he's no longer with us. I think he had decided pretty early on that he wanted me. But, you know, it wasn't just playing.

When I walked on stage, he went, Mr. Kim, welcome to Philadelphia. And I think if I had looked over and I'd be like, Maestro, you know, just like, kind of like a scared guy. I think that would not have looked right.

I think he was looking for a concertmaster to lead the orchestra, to be in front of the board of directors, to help promote the orchestra, like all those things that concertmasters have to do. And so I made it a point to wear a suit and a tie. When I saw other guys wearing khakis and a shirt, I was wearing a full suit tie and then they were trying to push me on stage.

Hurry up, the committee is waiting for you. And I was like, wait. And I pulled out a comb and I was like, combed my hair and I was like *deep breath.*

And then I walked on slowly and then Maestro said, Mr. Kim, welcome to Philadelphia. I was like, Maestro, thank you. You know, all these things, I think, made a difference.

He asked me for a part in Also Sprach Zarathustra that I had not learned nor practiced, of course. This so hard, crazy hard part. And I thought, no way they're going to ask for that.

And he did. And I was just fumbling and I was way up in the 17th position and I was just, and every time there were the rest, I was just stop. And I looked at him like, please stop, please stop.

Kind of funny. And then he looked and he went, keep going. I was like, even the humor, I think, perhaps had something to do with it too.

It wasn't just like panic, but it was like, really? Come on, bro. And I'm like, can I stop now?

Kind of that. So all those things, I think, went into this pot of soup.

Yeah, I'm sure. Who are some of the most influential people in your career?

I would have to say.... There are so many incredible conductors I've played under. Literally, scores of them.

I mean, so many great guest conductors, music directors, including my present music director. So I don't know if I can really single out any conductors, even though musicians out there might think, well, I'm sure he's going to say a conductor or two. But they all bring something incredible to the table. And there are so many amazing conductors in every generation. 

So I'll talk about non-conductors. I would have to say, one would be Yo-Yo Ma.

And that is for one moment. And that is when we were playing at Carnegie Hall, and it was opening night, and it was going to be broadcast on PBS all over the country. And it was Strauss' Don Quixote.

And that's like a big cello concerto. And Dulcinea, the woman, is played by the concertmaster. So lots of beautiful little solos.

And then Tantra Panza is played by the principal viola. And after the full dress rehearsal, like three hours before we went on air in a packed Carnegie Hall, we played through the Don Quixote. And I was nervous.

And I was new on the job. And I just thought, oh my gosh, I'm just going to stay out of the way and not try to steal any limelight from Yo-Yo or anything like that. And so after the run through, I heard a knock on my dressing room door, and it was his assistant.

And she said, Yo-Yo would like to see you. So I went down the hall and I walked in, and he looked at me and he said, David, would you have a solo take over the effing stage? And that really has helped me so many times.

I mean, there have been many times, including many times at Carnegie Hall, where I've had solos and I have almost fallen apart, like shaky bow and super nervous. But there have also been fewer of those occasions because I remember what Yo-Yo said, and I bring it to the table, and I play out, and I just go for it, and I, as he says, take over the effing stage, and establish something, and play something that's impactful. So I'm always thankful to him for that.

The other person I would have to say is my wife. My wife is not a musician. She grew up playing golf.

Just like we grew up playing music, she grew up playing golf and became an All-American golfer at Ohio State University and almost became a professional on the LPGA, and then she just burned out and quit. So she knows the kind of sacrifice and heartache that all of us go through to get to the top level of what we're doing. But she always did and continues to provide an incredibly healthy perspective and a sensible perspective.

We musicians are dramatic and we overdo it, and we are such drama queens, all of us, and we're so insecure, and sometimes you just need somebody. Hopefully, someday your spouse will look at you and say, Katrina, stop it. You are freaking out and it's not necessary.

And I hear that even now from my dear wife, Jane. And so I am so grateful to her for just being the voice of reason and supportive, understanding when I just need to sit there and just cry it out or sit there and celebrate. She'll celebrate with me because she knows that each concert is a minor miracle.

Like every concert, we need to celebrate. That's why we're all alcoholics and a little overweight, because we all eat too much cheese and crackers and drink too much wine after every concert.

Yes. That's true love, and I'm glad you have that in your life. What are some of the unknown duties of a concertmaster, and what is your favorite part of being a concertmaster?

I guess unknowns could be, we have new assistant conductors about every two seasons, and they're usually young, out of school but young, and they're trying so hard to claw their way up the ladder in the music business, and they don't get a ton of opportunities to conduct the big band, us. But when they do, understandably, it's terrifying. You know, can you imagine being a young conductor and all of a sudden, you have to get up and conduct Pictures at an Exhibition to the Philadelphia Orchestra or Stravinsky, Rite of Spring?

I mean, it's crazy. But part of my job is to mentor those assistant conductors, and I have through the years, and it kind of happened by accident, just by becoming friends with them. Earlier on in my career, I did not.

But as I got older, and these conductors continued to be very young, and as I gained more and more experience, I started embracing that role. And so when they come in, one of the first things I do is we have a meal together, and then we start building the trust. And once we build the trust, then they can come to me and say, okay, I'm conducting this Silver's concert on Friday morning.

This piece is very difficult. How much should I rehearse? How much should I let go? How much should I woodshed? How much should I work on intonation? Should I just play through? Should I not open my mouth? 

You know, like all this stuff that seems very natural, it's a little different when you're conducting a big five orchestra. And so I'm there to help support them, lift them up, encourage them.

Perhaps I'm playing in the concert and afterwards, I'll give them some suggestions, tips, pointers, say, you know what? You didn't have to whatever, do this or that, or, you know, A, B, and C worked. But D was a little questionable.

You didn't have to do that. I felt like that was done from a place of, maybe of insecurity, you know, just things like that. And so that's one of my kind of unspoken duties.

Another is just building relationships. And with who? Well, two big constituencies.

One is with my colleagues. That is really important. The Concertmaster, for better or for worse, is really a liaison between the conductor and the musicians.

And, of course, there's a lot of direct communication. But when we're playing on stage, there are many opportunities for the Concertmaster to kind of influence the whole vibe in the orchestra just through the way I move, my facial expression, the way I respond to the conductor. If I'm a jerk and I'm giving off this vibe like, this guest conductor stinks.

Oh, they are so amateurish or they talk too much. You know, if I'm giving off those negative vibes, it's going to seep into other parts of the orchestra just unspoken. So I don't even think negative thoughts about conductors.

I am constantly trying to form a bond with whoever is on the podium, whether it's a young 24-year-old assistant conductor or whether it's Simon Rattle or whether it's Fabio Luizzi. You know, it doesn't matter who it is or Yannick Nézet-Séguin again, my music director. I'm still constantly trying to build trust and to seal that trust tank.

So that's nice and full, the trust tank. I don't want it to have this much at the bottom, and we're just running on fumes because the slightest thing can create insecurity and bad feelings. And if the concertmaster is at the beginning of that kind of the bad feelings, can you imagine how things can fall apart so quickly?

Oh, yeah.

One other constituency is our board of directors and our patrons, of which there are, you know, board of directors are maybe 40 or 50, but patrons, there are thousands. And there is rarely a day that goes by when I'm not in the grocery store or the mall or Ikea or the Starbucks where I will meet somebody who says, enjoy your concerts, thank you for all you do for our community. You know, that kind of thing happens just about every day or in the airport or in the airplane.

But our board is very important. They give a lot of their time, a lot of their money, a lot of their resources, a lot of their soul they give to the orchestra for the sake of the great Philadelphia Orchestra and our community, our state, and it's really important that they feel appreciated. And so some of the rank and file in the orchestra may not feel so comfortable creating friendships with a multimillionaire.

But for some reason, God created me as I'm pretty comfortable being with anybody. And so whether they're a billionaire or whether they're a student, I feel comfortable and I can create a relationship pretty easily. And so if that means going on a vacation with a board member or playing a round a golf or going behind my board member's house to go hunting on their property, anything, it could be anything, or get together for a coffee.

You know, just many, many different things can happen.

Yeah. I didn't think about all the relationship stuff between the orchestra member, conductor, and the board members as well. So that's very important to know.

I have a question about performing. Do you still get nervous performing as a concert master? And do you have any pre-concert rituals?

That's a great question. I do get nervous. I get nervous not every time.

It just depends on context, repertoire. You know, if we're playing Scheherazade in Carnegie Hall, I'm nervous. I'm very nervous.

So what are some of my pre-concert rituals? I used to be much more regimented. I'm less now.

Maybe it's because I'm more busy and I have less time because I used to be like, okay, I'm going to take a long nap and then I'm going to take a run. And nowadays, there are many days I don't have time to go take a nice long run and take a nap and then a leisurely shower. And then, and I used to, I like to eat a lot.

And so I would have to get a big meal. I had to get a big Chipotle burrito and down that guy, you know, like, but now it's a little different. But I would say one of the small things that I do as a ritual is on the day of a big concert, I do not socialize or dine with a fellow musician.

I've had too many occasions where on the day of a concert, if I'm in another country or another town, and they're like, oh, David, you're here. Gosh, you're leaving the day after tomorrow. Please, let's have coffee tomorrow.

And so I'm like, okay, we'll have coffee. And then all of a sudden, they're starting to get in my head. They're like, so how do you approach memory slips?

I'm like, what? 

Or they're talking about like, okay, when you make a big slub, how do you recover if the conductor's not really looking in your direction? And like all of a sudden, all these negative thoughts get into my head.

So I learned that one in Costa Rica, of all places. I was playing with the National Symphony there, Dvorak Concerto, and I had lunch with one of the members of the orchestra that day. And that person just messed with my head.

They were very intense and they kept saying stuff about memorization and visualization. By the time I got on stage, I was totally freaked out. 

And so that night, my parents were there. I said, Mom and Dad, I am never going to have a meal with a musician again on the day of a concert. And I really stuck with that. Other than that, I don't really have too many.

I mean, I just try to make sure that I don't overdo it on the day of a concert. Maybe I'll drive more carefully and drive a little slower to the hall. I try to do everything slower on the day of a concert because I'm a fast person.

I talk fast, I think fast, everything is fast. But when you're nervous and you're playing a solo, that's the last thing you want. I park underneath the building in Philadelphia and I try to walk up three flights of stairs very slowly and go into my room and get there early and do a lot of slow woodshedding for a good hour before, way before.

It's the concert at eight, it sticks the clock, I get there. Slow woodshedding, sit down, relax, slowly change. Nothing quick, nothing fast.

Not showing up at the hall at 7.45 and running into my dressing room. No, no, everything is slow and really kind of set myself up for success in a calm manner.

Yeah, that's so important. And going back to what you said about musicians getting in your head, I think that applies to all of us. I remember I was playing the Vieuxtemps Five concerto once, and one of my colleagues was like, oh, you played this one run so perfectly.

And from that point, I could never play that run ever again. So it's good to know that that's not just me and it happens to all of us. Including professional musicians.

Absolutely. And it happens in sports a lot. Like when you're trying to get into your opponent's head in playing golf, you say something like, Bill, have you always done that little hitch at the top of your backswing?

Because it is so effective. I mean, the ball is just going perfectly straight every time. But that hitch is so clever. I'm going to have to try that sometime. Anyway, good playing today. And then we keep going and they're like, can't keep it on the golf course then.

So talking about golf, I was wondering if you have any hobbies and what you do to stay inspired?

I don't really need to work too hard to be inspired. All the stuff that I'm doing is just amazing. Like just being a member of the great Philadelphia Orchestra is inspiring in and of itself.

Incredible conductors, world-class soloists, the repertoire. You know, I don't love everything that we do, but for the most part, it's the most incredible repertoire. Like this week, we're doing an opera by Wagner, Tristan und Isolde. 

I mean, that's unbelievable. Four hours of Wagner opera. It's just amazing.

Next week, we're doing Prokofiev Classical Symphony, Shostakovich cello concerto. You know, just all this stuff is so inspiring. And my colleagues inspire me.

They are so wonderful. I mean, the orchestra is just full of tremendous players, just amazing instrumentalists, artists, and people, great people. 

You know, for hobbies, golf is definitely my number one hobby.

As I mentioned before, my wife is an excellent golfer. So we play a lot of golf and we play a lot of fundraisers and things like that, and take some golf vacations. And so golf is really a big part of our life.

And then also, believe it or not, I'm an archery deer hunter. As I mentioned earlier, I spent my entire childhood practicing five hours, six hours every day. And so, I mean, I didn't even learn how to swim until I was an adult.

So I'm basically trying to catch up on all the stuff that I missed out on as a child. And I've always had a fascination with the outdoors and locally sourced proteins. So I love the fish, and I love a great meal of venison with a wonderful bottle of red wine, and with friends, and I mean, I don't particularly enjoy the actual killing of the animal.

But it is more natural than what we eat from the store. It's all organic, and it's 10 minutes from my house in the woods. I really do enjoy the social part of it.

Yes. Going outside as a musician is very important because, you know, you can get stuck in a practice room or in your house all day.

That's right.

I always close with this one question. What piece of advice would you give to aspiring professional musicians?

Well, this is easy. It goes back to a book that I love. It's called Outliers, and it's by an author named Malcolm Gladwell.

You should all, every one of you should buy this book. And it's basically a book kind of exploring the concept of success. What creates success?

And Katrina, you've heard people say, oh, well, you have to practice minimum 10,000 hours. That comes from that book. And so each chapter deals with some success.

One is about building the atomic bomb with Oppenheimer and how he was chosen to be the head physicist, nuclear physicist to build the atom bomb. There's an entire chapter on hockey players in the Czech Republic and how they all made it to the pro level. There's an entire chapter on concert violinists and how 10,000 hours of practice and all that stuff.

But all that to say, almost, it's not more important than how you play the violin is being a good person, being kind, warm, being a good listener, not being arrogant, being able to accept constructive criticism and adjust, being a good colleague. You know what I'm talking about. You know, it happens in school.

There are certain classmates that kind of rub you the wrong way or they're a little arrogant, or there are certain colleagues from school that you love. And you want to sit and buy them an orchestra because it just feels good to be around them and they make you a better player and a better person. And after 26 years in this industry, to me, I realized pretty quickly that I'm not the best violinist even in our orchestra.

But I think part of the reason that I got this job was because perhaps I'm able to be that person who occupies the first chair and is the liaison between the conductor and the musicians. And I can connect with the board. I can be friends with many different constituencies involved with the orchestra, audience, new young members of the orchestra, members who have been in the orchestra for 50 years, students.

So, just be a warm, easy person to work with and you will have more success than if you're the greatest violinist in the whole world, but you're kind of difficult to work with or you're like a little angular and a little bit hard around the edges, a little crusty. You won't get invited back.

That's great advice. Thank you so much for sharing and thank you for coming on my podcast.

It was my honor to be with you, Katrina. This was awesome.

I hope you all enjoyed hearing David Kim's stories about resilience, hard work, and overcoming hardships and were inspired by his wisdom. You can learn more about him and his book, The Audition Method for Violin at davidkimviolin.com and follow his performances at the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings. Thank you so much for joining me on Backstage Classical Career Conversations and be sure to subscribe to the show and rate us on the platform you're using.

To donate to the show to help us keep creating content, click on the support link in the description. I'm Katrina Stroud and it was great to see you here. Until next time, stay inspired and listen to the stories of others.