Choo one of the chosen few
As the lights go down and the Honduran audience fades into darkness, violinist Daniel Choo will be satisfied.
“Whenever I’m doing a recital or concert, the audience really blacks out and you can’t see anything,” said the rising senior at Farragut High School. “It’s like you and the music. I love the excitement and adrenaline that builds up as we perform.”
Choo was chosen to be part of the prestigious National Youth Orchestra composed of about 120 16- to 19-year-olds. The group will spend about three weeks training in New York. The tour kicks off with the orchestra’s annual concert at Carnegie Hall, continuing with stops in Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia.
Participants go through an application and audition process.
“We had a two-minute solo of our choice showing our strengths and musicality,” Choo said. “We filmed it at the Natalie Haslam Music Center at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. My dad and my teacher helped record it. I also did a typical application and a video essay. They had a variety of questions. I talked about my passion for music and they asked me to talk about another non-musical experience I was passionate about and I talked about community volunteering.”
Although Choo is an accomplished violinist who fell in love with the instrument when he was 5, he hasn’t been part of the FHS orchestra due to time constraints.
“I haven’t had the chance to play with a school orchestra,” he said. “I focus mainly on the academics at school.
“When I first got interested, my mom and I were following a family friend to his violin lesson at his teacher’s house,” he added. “I was just sitting on the couch with my mom, just listening. That’s when I first really got interested and held his violin for fun. I put it on the wrong shoulder at first.
“I’d heard the piano a lot because my mom used to play a lot,” he said. “When I heard the violin for the first time, I think I was really attracted to the resonance and the ranges. In the upper ranges, it can be like an opera singer and in the lower can be tougher, like a more intense romantic piece.”
Choo joined Knoxville Youth Symphony Orchestra when he was about 7. (“It’s relatively competitive, but the environment is a lot of fun,” he said.)
Motivated to improve, Choo is still taking lessons.
“As a high school student, there’s a lot of school work and different extra-curricular activities, so I don’t get to invest as much time as I would like,” he said. “When I practice, it’s usually three to four hours at a time.”
Choo said he’s completely undecided about his college path at this point.
“I’d definitely love to hold onto the violin where I go,” he said. “I may be a little more inclined toward math and sciences, but I like political science and maybe law studies.”
