[Perform-Talk] A Symphony Orchestra At a School for the Blind in Korea

[Ella Yu]

Hi, Thank you for sharing your perspective soloing with orchestras. That is
definitely a very different experience from playing in an orchestral
section. I myself have not soloed with an orchestra in a significant
capacity, like, I played a two-violin concerto movement with orchestra
years ago, but it was a Baroque piece that had no tempo fluctuations so it
was easier that way.

I believe you might be thinking of the Filomen M. D'Agostino Greenberg
Music School, which does indeed have ensembles and other programs for the
blind, but not specifically classical orchestra/chamber music focused at
the moment. Their ensemble stuff is, as far as I can tell, mostly choir and
jazz/pop/contemporary ensembles. By the way, I live nowhere near New York,
so I have no connection to the FMDG music school whatsoever, but I do
follow them on Facebook out of curiosity.

You may have missed this, but a couple of months ago, I posted a fairly
lengthy piece based on research about an all blind orchestra in Egypt,
Africa, and I was actually able to track down a lot more information about
how they rehearse and learn their music. I also posted the same thing to
Reddit, so for simplicity's sake, I'll share the reddit link to that post.
I also included some personal reflections about my own experiences playing
violin and viola in an orchestra without sight.
https://www.reddit.com/r/classicalmusic/comments/19bi6p2/interesting_and_unique_a_blind_orchestra_from/

On Wed, Apr 3, 2024 at 9:46 AM Ignasi Cambra via Perform-Talk <
perform-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Hey Ella,
>
> I have heard about this group before, but never in such detail and with so
> much info! I have played many many times with orchestra, but always as a
> soloist which is, in a way, a lot easier because you're essentially making
> music with the conductor and the concert master who aren't that far away
> from the piano. When there are passages where there's a specific section
> playing something along with me I generally look in their direction and
> things work out just fine, but I feel like being a member of the orchestra
> and having to closely follow the conductor's interpretation and cues must
> be quite difficult! Actually I would assume that being surrounded by
> sighted musicians in that situation would make things a bit easier, because
> one could just follow other people's breathing etc. In my view the most
> practical way to make a relatively large group of blind musicians play
> together would be to do it Orpheus-style, without a conductor.
>
> Back when I was at Juilliard I remember hearing about a music school for
> the blind somewhere in New York City. I wonder if they have ensembles
> similar to the one from Korea?
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On 2 Apr 2024, at 05:17, Ella Yu via Perform-Talk <
> perform-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> >
> > Hey everyone,
> >
> > Since I am the google research nerd I am, I just found out that a school
> > for the blind in Korea has a wonderful symphonic orchestra made up of all
> > blind/visually impaired musicians. Large ensembles consisting entirely of
> > blind and visually impaired musicians are really interesting, especially
> if
> > it's a symphony orchestra. (I may be a bit biased because I play
> > violin/viola in a symphonic orchestra myself). As you may or may not
> > remember, I discovered an all-blind symphonic orchestra located in Egypt
> a
> > few months ago called the AL Nour Wal Amal Orchestra, and I posted my
> > findings on them to this group. Now, I think I have found another.
> >
> > This orchestra is located at the Hanbit School for the Blind in South
> > Korea. The school's performing arts division was founded in 2003 to give
> > blind artists more and better opportunities, and the orchestra was
> created
> > in 2011. The school seems to have lots of other ensembles as well.
> > Unfortunately, I cannot find a lot of details about the Hanbit school
> > orchestra or its programing in general, so I am having to guess and infer
> > some things from the sources I am able to locate. A big part of it is
> that
> > a lot of information about the Hanbit school is in Korean, and content
> > about them in English is sparse. However, here is a short video about
> them.
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH6T9sprLZY
> >
> > Here's a performance they did of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake Suite in 2023 at
> > their 20th anniversary celebration concert. Their playing is pretty
> > incredible, I'd say it's comparable to that of a very advanced youth
> > orchestra or a mid to high level university symphony comprised of mostly
> > music majors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDmfA69IbEk
> >
> > Here is a news story on violinist Jisun Kim, who was with the orchestra
> > from 2011-2014 as concertmaster.
> > https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200730000330
> >
> > And here's another more recent interview with her, where she goes into
> more
> > depth about her life and career as a blind violinist. I believe she is
> now
> > pursuing a graduate degree at the Manhattan School of Music, which is an
> > incredible achievement.
> > https://www.tatlerasia.com/lifestyle/arts/dragon-icons-lacma-party-2024
> >
> > And to top it all off, here is Jisun Kim performing Sarasate's Carmen
> > Fantasy, which is a highly virtuosic work for violin. She plays
> incredibly
> > well.
> >
> https://www.thestrad.com/video/happy-lunar-new-year-jisun-kim-performs-carmen-fantasy/14391.article
> >
> > Here is a concert recording of a piano trio consisting of students/alumni
> > of the Hanbit School. The concert took place in 2023 at the Kaufmann
> Music
> > Center in New York, and is done in collaboration with the New Jersey
> Youth
> > Symphony. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfTYIjLSo8I
> > And here is a link to the concert description.
> >
> https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/darkness-to-light-hanbit-trio-j-with-new-jersey-youth-symphony/
> >
> > Here is the Hanbit Performing Arts YouTube channel.
> > https://www.youtube.com/@HanbitArts
> >
> > It is so wonderful to see blind and visually impaired musicians playing
> > classical music at the professional and pre-professional level,
> especially
> > on orchestral instruments. I myself chose not to pursue a career in music
> > even though I wanted to for most of my childhood, but these musicians are
> > an inspiration to me.
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