Meet YuA: Pop & Classical Violinist and Violin Instructor

We had the good fortune of connecting with YuA and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi YuA, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
My entire musical career so far has been a series of risks. Some of them were totally worth it and some were definitely not, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. My first risks were taken with the help of my parents. I began taking violin lessons at the age of 8, which is typically considered quite old to start the instrument. When my parents saw how quickly I fell in love with the instrument and how quickly I improved, they poured everything they had into helping me get ahead. Despite my family being immigrants with huge disadvantages financially as well as in terms of connections, they invested in my passion and talent, helping me win competitions and securing performance opportunities all over my hometown.

The one biggest risk I have ever taken was moving to New York City when I was 14, and then choosing to stay here until today. When I first got here, I had the most overwhelming feelings of doubt and received a harsh blow to my self-esteem. I think this happens to most people who move to cities like New York or L.A.; everyone there has immense talents and was successful back home and you suddenly feel like maybe you were never good enough to make it. My first couple of years in New York gave me failed competitions, violin teachers telling me every lesson about all the things I lacked as a player, and so many regrets that I wanted to pack up and go home. But I didn’t. My friends and family rooted for me every step of the way through, and throughout the past few years I was able to win competitions again, and perform at venues I’ve always dreamed of performing at, like Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. I am now currently studying violin performance in college, and will start pursing my masters degree in the fall.

Lastly, I took a risk in starting my YouTube channel, where I share my violin covers of all genres of music to the world. There has always been sort of stigma surrounding classical musicians playing music other than classical, so I was always afraid of putting myself out there. What people from school found my channel? What if they judge me, or lose respect for me? I hope this sort of stigma in the classical music community will one day disappear, but for now, I just have to ignore it. Music is constantly evolving, and I will continue posting videos of songs that I enjoy. Every day I feel grateful for the love I’ve received on YouTube, and I will continue to take risks to build this amazing community of music lovers.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Throughout my musical journey, the one thing that continuously held me back and kept me from unlocking my true potential as a musician was my desire to please EVERYONE. I don’t blame myself; musicians who go through intense classical training tend to feel the same way, as we are taught to strictly obey tradition and respect the way our elders teach us to play our repertoire. Up until the end of high school, I was okay with this, but I hit a dead end during my undergraduate years. A core memory of mine is when I performed for a violin professor at a masterclass during my sophomore year of college. The way I chose to play and interpret things clearly did not please him, and afterward, I cried outside of the concert hall due to the harsh criticisms I received. (Don’t worry, my friends all gathered around and comforted me. I felt so grateful for them!)

I lost my sense of direction for a while. In 2019, I started seeing a lot of violinists on YouTube, so I finally made my first violin cover for fun. My channel grew slowly at first, but a few months later, two of my videos blew up. I decided to continue along that path and made more covers of songs associated with the ones that got me popular. Today, I have close to 30, 000 subscribers and most of them are following me for my anime and K-pop song covers. I’ve learned that as long as I find a niche that I love and can fit into, it isn’t too difficult to build up an audience and community within that niche. In 2021, I plan to start livestreaming to my audience and hanging out with them more. Livestreaming is also a great alternative to giving live concerts, as Covid-19 is still a threat. I’m very excited for what this year has in store.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m a huge foodie. I know a lot of the best spots to eat in New York City, and though we might try, there is definitely not enough time to cover 1% of those spots in one week! We would definitely have to visit K-town for Korean BBQ, drinks, and dessert. St. Marks would also be on the list, with a variety of cool Japanese restaurants, dessert spots, and cute shops. There is also so much much great Italian food in NYC, we’d have to visit at least a couple of the best Italian restaurants. Lastly, we would have to get some delicious Chinese food or hotpot in Chinatown or Flushing, Queens.

As for activities, I would take my friend to all sorts of concerts and Broadway shows. We would get tickets for Carnegie Hall, the Met Opera, and of course, Broadway. I’m not sure how many of them are still open, but I recently discovered how cool jazz clubs are. I’d definitely take my friend to a show at a jazz club as well.

As a person who has live in New York for many years, a lot of the basic tourist attractions have lost their spark to me. However, I’d definitely recommend visiting the Metropolitan Museum, Central Park, and Brooklyn Bridge.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
This is pretty cliche but I’d like to dedicate my shoutout to my mom and my dad for supporting literally everything that I do.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yuaviolin/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/yuaviolin

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfdiUCw6Cg9rIRfCtTUFbvQ

Other: Business email: yuaviolin@gmail.com Discord server for my community: https://discord.gg/XtesCdRh6D
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/yuaviolin
Tiktok: https://vm.tiktok.com/JegMh7m/

Image Credits
William Oh