Yun at Heart

Thursday, April 7, 2005 | 8:20 a.m.

Reviews for violinist Chee-Yun are often so deeply poetic you wonder what kind of spell she has placed on her critics.

Then you read on to find the defining words: maturity, grace, restraint, full tone and flawless technique performed with ease.

Modestly, Chee-Yun, who will perform with the Las Vegas Philharmonic this weekend, shrugs off her much-touted technique as merely a requirement for the industry.

"It's something that all the performing artists have to have," Chee-Yun said via telephone from her hotel room in Pittsburgh.

But, she added, "You have to go beyond that. You have to have it just pour out of your body, your soul. You have to take them on your musical journey. You have to be consumed.

"While walking down the street, I'm thinking of music."

Chee-Yun's love for music has twice overwhelmed her body. As a child, growing up in Seoul, South Korea, she practiced the piano incessantly, even falling asleep on the keys.

Her mother, seeing that her daughter's eyes were crossing, pulled Chee-Yun away from the piano and Chee-Yun, then age 6, turned to the violin, which came easier for her and required less practice.

Years later, a high school senior and student of Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School, Chee-Yun's ardor again caused physical strain, and she was told by a doctor that she had tendinitis in her arm and would need to find another career.

Depressed, she went for a second opinion from another doctor, who told her simply, "You play too much. You need to stretch. You need to exercise."

Heeding that advice, Chee-Yun started exercising, continued toward a career as a soloist performing nationally and internationally with major symphonies, recorded half a dozen CDs, began teaching and was labeled by some critics as classical music's next big superstar.

This weekend, playing her 1669 Ruggierri, she will perform Prokofiev's "Second Violin Concerto." This will be her second collaboration with LV Philharmonic music director Harold Weller, with whom she first performed in 1993 when Weller was with the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra.

Of Prokofiev's concerto, Chee-Yun said, "This is the most respected work in violin repertoire. The first movement starts out with a solo violin for a noble beginning. The third movement is a primitive dance quality.

"Technically it's quite difficult. Rhythmically it's quite challenging."

But, she added, "When he writes singing melodies, it's so beautiful."

Concert bound

With an expansive classical repertoire and several CDs, Chee-Yun felt comfortable enough a couple of years ago to record a crossover CD, which proved successful in South Korea, where she said classical music fans aren't as serious as fans in the United States and Europe.

"Sentimental Memories" includes performances of vocal pieces from Broadway, opera and popular music, including the songs of Edith Piaf and Irving Berlin.

In South Korea, Chee-Yun said, "I have younger audiences, college students going on dates. That just makes me so happy, because you've got to reel them in when they're young and open-minded."

Chee-Yun was drawn to classical music at an early age by an older sister who played piano and another sister who played violin.

But because the violin required less practice for Chee-Yun than the piano, Chee-Yun's mother thought her daughter's violin teacher was wasting her daughter's time. So Chee-Yun's mother sent her to a major competition where, at age 8, Chee-Yun won the grand prize.

"It surprised everyone, including myself," Chee-Yun said. "It was my first time being on stage and I really loved it. I didn't get nervous. I liked showing off, I guess."

Soon she was studying with Nam Yum Kim, who studied under Ivan Galamian. With sister Cheu-Yun already at Juilliard, Chee-Yun sent a recital tape to DeLay and was accepted.

"I wanted to come to the states," Chee-Yun said. "I was very curious. I was doing well in Korea, but Korea is a small place."

At age 13, shortly after arriving in New York, Chee-Yun won a young soloist competition, which granted her the opportunity to perform with the New York Philharmonic.

"I thought, 'This is great,' " Chee-Yun said. " 'I think I might be doing this for the rest of my life.'

"Nothing made me feel like what music does to me, to my soul. Music was so fulfilling."

DeLay helped cultivate the talents of a young Chee-Yun, who today regards DeLay as a "very kind grandmother type."

"She was a giant name, legendary teacher," Chee-Yun said. "You had tremendous respect for her yet she never demanded it from you."

Chee-Yun returns to recording this spring under the Denon label, which took a chance on her back in the 1990s with a debut CD that included three songs from "West Side Story."

The music, she hoped, would let her stand out among the many other young performers with debut CDs in the 1990s. Denon then offered her a five-year contract, in which she recorded works by Rachmaninoff, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mendelssohn, Szymanowski, Debussy and Faure.

Chee-Yun is returning to Denon and plans to begin recording Brahms and Strauss sonatas in May. A fan of old jazz, Chee-Yun said she'd like to explore crossover music, but for now is dedicated to classical.

"Sentimental Memories" also includes movie music from "Casablanca" ("As Time Goes By"), John Barry's love theme for "Somewhere in Time" and Irving Berlin's "What'll I Do?"

"It's all vocal but violin imitates vocal very well," Chee-Yun said. "I'm a big fan of vocal music. I learn to color my notes by vocal music.

"Singers have a natural flow. I try to imitate that."

As far as the reviews regarding her as the next big superstar, Chee-Yun said, "It makes me feel like I really better practice, play well and live up to the expectations. But I like being challenged. That's what keeps me fresh-minded, young."