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Willy Wonka’s orchestra: Jung-Ho Pak inspires joy as a conductor
Pak explains what makes an orchestra concert ‘tasty’ and how he helps young musicians learn to love music again.
“There’s a joke that classical musicians have two emotions,” says conductor Jung-Ho Pak. “One is serious—and the other one's more serious.”
Professional classical musicians—who spend many hours of their lives in practice and rehearsal—sometimes need an extra reminder of why they love their jobs. Pak is out to help students and adults alike reclaim their sense of delight in music. He cares about it so much that he gave a TED-X talk about it in 2016.
“Learn to savor life,” he urged his audience. “Nothing’s more exciting than seeing someone really loving what they do.”
Pak’s own journey toward joy has taken him from being a child piano prodigy to forging a path in the world of orchestral conducting. He’s made the music he loves into a career, and he’s done so in a way that ensures he takes the podium with a smile on his face.
On Sunday, August 6, at Interlochen Center for the Arts, Pak will do just that as he conducts the World Youth Symphony Orchestra (WYSO) in concert.
What’s Pak’s secret? Here, he shares what joy means to him and describes his dream for an orchestra that’s united by it.
From playing for his parents to finding his own passion
Pak started playing piano at age six, and admits that he had a fairly negative attitude towards music when he first started.
“For me, music was about learning pieces and playing them to please my parents, please my teacher. I didn't understand the purpose of music and art.”
When Pak was nine, he took a college-level music theory class at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. For the first time, he began to understand what music was all about.
“In going into that college theory class, I began a journey to understand music. There were big, deep ideas behind it: harmony, structure, and things like that.”
The class ignited a passion in him, one that only burned brighter when he started playing clarinet in junior high and genuinely enjoying it. Years later, he returned to the conservatory to earn his master’s in orchestral conducting.
I was stunned when I would walk into the offices of professional orchestras and it felt not unlike going into a business office. You would think that it would be like going to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory—that if you get to work in the arts, everyone's just having a great time.
After earning still another master’s degree, Pak began finding work in his field with orchestras around the world. He was young, idealistic, and eager to share his enthusiasm with others. Not everyone, he found out, shared his point of view.
“I was stunned when I would walk into the offices of professional orchestras and it felt not unlike going into a business office,” Pak remembers. “You would think that it would be like going to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory—that if you get to work in the arts, everyone's just having a great time.”
Pak resolved to be a force for change. When he became conductor and artistic director of the Cape Symphony, he quickly set about refocusing their vision.
“I changed the mission of the Cape Symphony to two words: ‘Inspire joy.’”
Remembering his own days of grudging practice, Pak spent many hours working with young musicians. For a time, he was musical director of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, where he frequently encouraged his students to rediscover their love of music.
“Imagine that you’re a child and you've spent the last 10-14 years of your life playing and being forced to practice,” says Pak. “You’re forced to sit in an orchestra or a classroom for hours every week in the classroom. The idea of joy and individualism becomes a foreign concept to you. I have a lot of untraining to do.”
When you're a performer, you need to understand that you're performing in front of a trapped audience, so what you're presenting has to be incredibly tasty. The crunchiness, the saltiness, the minute details of how you're dressed, how you speak, how you move, your vibrato, your tone quality—you need to understand what it is to be incredibly present, incredibly now, and fill your audience up with lots of love and intentionality.
Creating a ‘tasty’ performance
Joy isn’t just a warm and fuzzy feeling for musicians, however. According to Pak, joy is at its heart a gift to be shared with others: “I think the deepest amount of joy is when you bring a smile or bring comfort to somebody.”
Every time musicians lift their instruments to play, they have a chance to communicate joy to their audience. As if the orchestra itself is a chocolate factory, every aspect of the experience must be crafted for the listeners’ delight.
“When you're a performer, you need to understand that you're performing in front of a trapped audience, so what you're presenting has to be incredibly tasty,” says Pak. “The crunchiness, the saltiness, the minute details of how you're dressed, how you speak, how you move, your vibrato, your tone quality—you need to understand what it is to be incredibly present, incredibly now, and fill your audience up with lots of love and intentionality. If you don’t, you're missing the moment to do something extraordinary.”
Despite his sweeping vision, Pak remains humble, seeing himself as a servant of the audience. He’s looking forward to sharing his passion with WYSO this August.
“I am not there to tell people what to do, and I'm not there to wave my arms or be on the cover of a brochure,” he says. “I am there to bring hope and joy and love to 80 people sitting in front of me, so that together we can bring it to 1,400 people sitting behind me.”
Jung-Ho Pak will conduct the World Youth Symphony Orchestra on August 6, 2023, at 7:30 p.m. Get tickets here, watch the webcast, or learn more about Interlochen Arts Camp.
