1. Is this your first performing with RSO? How do you think about working with people in RSO?
**Yes this is my first time performing with RSO and I'm very excited to make music with them especially since Ridgewood is in my local community
2. Have you worked with our Artistic Director, Kyunghun before? How do you think about working with him?
**Prior to this I have worked with Maestro Kyunghun in a faculty setting where we both teach at AME summer camp which I have founded and direct. www.AMEministry.com. However this would be my first time collaborating in an orchestral setting with him, and it has been an absolute joy and pleasure for I truly admire him as a musician and also as a conductor.
3. Dvorak's cello concerto is one of the most well-known cello concerto. What do you expect to bring to the audience ? What will be telling the audience from you performance?
**I feel that the Dvorak concerto is one of greatest masterworks ever to be written, not just within the cello repertoire but among all classical works. It has everything that one can ever desire, from its grandeur to its incredible melodies displayed by the virtuosic voice of the cello. Together with the RSO I look forward to telling a heroic tale that encaptures a wide range of emotions from love, tragedy, victory, longing and ecstasy. I'm excited to communicate these things and to take you on this exciting journey with me.
4. As a Ridgewood resident, is there anything that you hope to bring to this community?
**I hope the whole experience releases a great sense of joy to all that attend. Often our brain is trained to either think and plan ahead, or reflect and think of the past. But as a musician, it is so important to be in the moment, for being in the moment is truly a gift or more fittingly a perfect 'present'. My hope is that through this concert, listeners will be able to enjoy the full live concert experience in allowing the music to transport you to different places in the moment.
