By Rebecca Shalomoff
Won-Jin Jo of Malverne, who is a junior at the Lawrence Woodmere Academy, was one of three students to win the New York Philharmonic 2001 Young People's Competition.
The contest, which was last held in 1992, was in honor of the departure of the Philharmonic's leading conductor, Kurt Masur. And the prize was a chance for the students to perform their winning piece with the orchestra at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall for the 2001 Young People's Concert.
It was such an honor to play with Kurt Masur and the orchestra, said Won-Jin, whose performance of Weber's Clarinet Concerto No. 1 won him the musical opportunity of a lifetime. Since then, he has been asked to headline a solo recital in Massachusetts.
In the past, he has performed with the Queens Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Symphony Orchestra, Rockaway Five Towns Orchestra and Juilliard Pre-College Symphony. He has played at the Juilliard Theater, Merkin Concert Hall and Carnegie Hall.
Also a straight-A student, Won-Jin
is happily devoted to clarinet. He practices it at least two hours each day, usually right after he gets home from school. Every
Saturday, from morning until evening,
he travels into the city to study at the
Juilliard Pre-College program. Won-Jin was accepted into the program four years ago. He takes classes on music theory
and visual analysis, has private lessons with his teacher, Alan Kay, and practices with the orchestra and chamber music group.
Won-Jin, who is the son of Tae-Ho and Myong O Jo, picked up the clarinet when he was nine. Four years prior, he started learning how to play the piano.
He keeps up both, but the clarinet is by far his passion.
It's more versatile, and the sound is really cool, he said. But the piano helps so much. It's a basic instrument that all musicians should know.
When he plays, his love of the clarinet and of music shines through. He closes his eyes and moves gracefully with his instrument, like a couple gliding across the dance floor.
People say I express a lot of emotion when I play. That I bring the instrument alive, he said. Moving people with my playing is one of my goals.
He also hopes to continue playing for people who can't afford to hear live performances of great music, like those in the Waterview Nursing Home he visits on Sundays with his father, a minister of a Presbyterian church in Queens.
If I can bring happiness with my playing, that means so much, he said.
