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Personal Statistics

Age: 29

Born: 02/18/1978 in San Francisco, CA

Grew up in: San Francisco Bay Area until 1992, when we moved to Bellingham, Washington (1.5 hours north of Seattle). My family moved around when I left for college and has now settled in Ashburn, VA, only 45 minutes away from DC!

Schools, Teachers: BM from Indiana University with Bruce Bransby; MM from University of Southern California with Nico Abondolo; additional private studies with David Moore.

Marital Status: Married to pianist Jiyoung Oh.

Update: We welcomed our son, Henry Tae, into the world on October 22, 2007.

Hobbies: I like to read a lot, everything from classic literature to science fiction and modern fiction. I also play my acoustic guitar almost every day for fun and try to come up with fun guitar licks. Occasionally, I attempt to fashion a song - though still definitely a work in progress. I also really enjoy going for walks with my wife and our dog Josie! (Paul, Jiyoung and Josie can now be seen walking with Henry Tae!)

Paul, as you have almost completed your first season with the National Symphony Orchestra, let me start by publicly welcoming you on board. You seem to have assimilated quite well socially, and your playing has certainly enhanced the sound of the NSO bass section. How has the adjustment been for you?

I definitely have to say that the members of the bass section here have been very friendly and welcoming, and everyone has helped tremendously in making me feel at home. There's always a lot going on after a big move, and having a new work place, city, scene, etc. can feel weighty. But all in all, the adjustment has been a great one for me and I feel like I'm becoming a better player every day - well, almost every day! I think having the chance to sit next to and hear so many great musicians in our section and throughout the orchestra has really made a difference. Not to mention all the great soloists!

Is there anything about the way the NSO plays that you had to get used to?

Yes, but mostly little things here and there, like bow placement and note length. There does seem to be an extroverted quality to the orchestra's intensity at times that's very exciting and I'm enjoying contributing to that.

A little about your early years - I know you started with the French bow. When and why did you switch to German?

My teacher during my senior year of high school was Barry Lieberman, and he spent most of the school year telling me that I just seemed like a German bow player. At the time I was pretty opposed to the idea of switching, but I think Barry was frustrated with my limited French bow technique and really felt the switch would play to my strengths. Finally, one day toward the end of the year, he said something like, "Just take one home for the week. Here, just take one of my nice bows and that's all I'm asking." I reluctantly agreed. Of course, immediately after he handed it to me, I dropped it! I remember clearly him putting his hand over his pained face saying, "just take it and go". The next day I tooled around on it and, "whoa!"- I was ready to switch immediately. I bought (well, my parents bought) a German bow the next week and I've never regretted it.

Say a few words about your concept of sound production…

I try to imagine turning on the whole instrument, getting as much of that beautiful wood to vibrate as possible. It'll probably vibrate regardless but it's the idea of letting the instrument breathe that I like. Freeing up the string's vibration and letting the bow and bass show me how to play, rather than trying to force the sound. It's amazing how much sound the bass will make even if you only use the weight of the bow! I do love to play with as many colors as possible, and I also really enjoy bringing out the inherent character of the bass. In other words, I would rather sound like a beautiful bass than an imposter cello.

Your bass is a wonderful orchestral instrument. Tell us about it…

The bass was made by Thomas Dodd circa 1810 in London, England. It was previously owned by one of my teachers, David Moore of the LA Philharmonic. It's a large 7/8ths instrument with a violin shape, which is quite uncommon. The broad shoulders made it a challenge to get around at first, but I now feel very at home with it. One impressive feature is that the back is a single piece of wood. It had to have come from a huge tree!

You attended Indiana University. Was there an emphasis on preparing for auditions there? How about at graduate school?

Indiana University's bass program is definitely audition oriented. I was, of course, always working on solo pieces, but the emphasis was on orchestral literature. In addition to lessons, we also had a two hour weekly master class, orchestra repertoire class, and I hear there's now an audition class where everyone is required to play each week. Between all of those classes and the 40 or so bassists that were around, the environment for an aspiring bassist never dulled. USC was also focused on auditions but the environment was different. The program is much smaller (16 or so bassists when I was there), and so the master classes and rep. classes had a more intimate feel. They also take an additional "professional" step: each year there is an audition for principal strings, and the winners actually get paid! It's not terribly much money, but it's nice at that stage of your education to actually receive a little money instead of always dishing it out.

When did you first understand that you had what it takes to be a contender at auditions?

I'm not totally sure if there was an exact moment, but I did always have an underlying confidence that I could do it, though it might require a lot of work. It wasn't so much that I knew that I would be successful, but I knew that I could be successful if I worked hard enough. I think it was helpful that I never felt anything was out of reach; no piece of music was too difficult, it just might take more time - some a lot more! Not that I've mastered the instrument by any stretch of the imagination, but knowing that one can always get better helps in the short run as well as the long. I have gone through phases (as I'm sure many have) where I became frustrated and my motivation and confidence waned. Luckily, I would keep working hard and eventually move past it. The first "professional acknowledgement" I received was at my second orchestra audition. It was for a Kansas City Symphony one-year position and I actually made the semi-finals! Maybe it wasn't the most impressive accomplishment, but it energized me at the time.

What was your worst audition experience - not in terms of whether you advanced, but where there were mishaps, or it was poorly run?

Well, everyone knows that you just can't bank on a great practice situation at the audition site the day of your audition. Sometimes, you're stuck in a freezing group-room for what seems like ages, and then maybe you get a private room for a short time before it's your turn. At this one particular audition, we were all fortunate enough to get a private room a good 40 minutes prior to playing for the committee. Unfortunately, the rooms varied greatly in quality. The fact that mine had unalterably dim lighting was no big deal, but I had frequent visitors. It was situated between two other rooms that were needed to set up a reception they were having that evening. Of course, they put up a curtain to try and block my awareness of the shuffling crew, but it almost amplified the situation. Half of the folks passing through went very quickly and loudly, and the other half tried to be very quiet and went very slowly as to not disturb me. I'm really not sure which was worse! And to top it off, an audition helper came into my room and just stood near me. I asked, "Is it time?" She said, "No, not yet." And then she just stood there for a few more minutes until she decided it was time to go. It was definitely a good experience in terms of not letting yourself get jarred before you play. Not that any of this was to blame for my apparently underwhelming performance - the committee voted against my talents that day. J

What words of wisdom do you have for your brethren on the audition circuit?

This is such a tricky topic because I think the experience is so different for each individual. One thing that definitely helped me was trying my best to avoid thinking in the short-term too much. In other words, the audition date looming ahead of me was not the end of the world OR my last chance to be a happy musician. I would try to use the audition preparation as an opportunity to improve on my playing, while staying aware that I was also preparing for other auditions in the future. My main goal would be just to play as well as I could at that time. I also highly recommend healthy amounts of positive thinking. Cheesy as it may sound, science has proven that when thinking positively, the body is more open and functions better! It certainly helps fight off all that negative self-talk which can hamper you when playing the actual audition.

What is your practice routine?

As a rule I try to vary my warm-up/exercise routine. Mainly, this prevents me from getting bored but it also helps to change things around for creative reasons. Sometimes, when I'm trying out new routines, I'll discover something that to me is a breakthrough. On the other hand, I don't change it every day. I'll usually stick to a routine for at least a few months and then start messing with it. After that, it usually depends on what I'm working on as to how I'll approach it. For highly difficult audition repertoire, I will usually try to find a way to break the excerpt down into fundamental chunks to work on before putting it back together. I also really enjoy playing along with recordings to help get my groove lined up and really feel the music as much as possible. If I'm practicing the scherzo from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, I'll probably spend a good amount of time working on smooth string crossings and various arpeggios - things like that.

You switched coasts from Portland to Washington. How would you compare the cities?

It's really very fun for my wife and me to explore and learn more about any new area. Portland was such a beautiful and friendly city to live in. Getting around is so easy there and the people seem pretty relaxed and enjoy life. DC is such a vibrant and intense city that it's exciting to go almost anywhere! There's also a lot going on with the music scene that affords us a lot more audience opportunities than we've had in a while. Really, all of the great orchestras, soloists, and chamber groups wind up playing here at some time or other. We're also so close to all the great east coast cities, not to mention Europe. We'll definitely have to explore that some more!

At this new juncture in your life, what are some of the professional goals you have set for yourself?

Right now my main goal is to strengthen my orchestral playing. Much as I love to play solos and recitals, I'm more focused on playing with this section and being as solid as I can be. Finding the right blend with the section, while still contributing individually, is very satisfying for me. In the longer term, there are pieces I would love to play in recital. It would also give me the opportunity to do one of the things I love to do most, and that's collaborate and have fun playing music with my wife, Jiyoung. My other big goal is to do more teaching. I really love to teach and I feel it makes me a better player, too. It's such a great opportunity to have to think about how things work and how to communicate with each individual.

You and your wife Jiyoung just got a dog. That must be a sign that you are feeling at home here in D.C. Tell us about your pooch…

Our dog's name is Josie, and she's a 4 year old pointer mix. We adopted her from the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria about 7 weeks ago. She is a very friendly 40-pounder who lives for food and walks - I suppose that's most dogs. When we go for walks she's pretty much on a squirrel hunt. As you can see from the picture, even when she's inside she likes to scope out the scene outdoors on the off-chance of a squirrel spotting! She's adjusting well to her new home and loves her back yard, where she loves to lie down on the grass and soak up the sun. I kind of grew up as more of a cat person, but my wife has been talking dogs since the day we met. I was a little on the fence about it until we started going to rescue shows and animal shelters…I think that'll get most folks. But as you can see, she's very cute and we are enamored with her!