Jury Talk: Nam Yun Kim

Teacher and mentor for generations of young violinists, the iconic

Nam Yun Kim has served on juries of numerous competitions worldwide. Having studied with Ivan Galamian and Felix Galimir at the Juilliard School, she made her international debut after winning the Tibor Varga Competition in 1974.

As a promising soloist, Kim was invited to perform at many internationally renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Kennedy Center and Sydney Opera House and other major concert halls in Europe and Asia. She also performed with major orchestras throughout the world including St. Petersburg Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Zagreb Radio Symphony and many others worldwide. Nam Yun Kim has been also invited to many famous music schools and festivals such as Jacobs School of Music in Indiana University, Toho Gakuen School of Music, Tibor Varga Academy, Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía and others. She continues to work as a professor of violin at Korea National University of Arts in Seoul. The interview took place in Tongyeong, South Korea, during the finals of the ISANGYUN Competition, where Nam Yun Kim served as Chair of the jury.

Nam Yun Kim: Competitions themselves are not important. But for students- they can open their future with competitions. They can get management, they can play abroad! If you are a violinist, you want to play around the world, for audiences, not only for yourself. My students want to try competitions… so I try to help them! It´s very simple.

Young musicians have different ideas about competitions. Some students want to go only for the first prize. For them, it´s all or nothing…

That´s because they are too young. They don´t have much experience… first prize only…That´s not right. When my students are leaving for a competition, I tell them: „It doesn´t matter what prize. Just try to learn- learn as many things from other people as possible“. But sometimes, they are too young. They don´t know yet...

Young students should listen to other people. I always tell my students to listen to other people. To try and meet other teachers, to get advice. To have an open mind. To listen to other styles, to get different ideas. Thats very important. Because in Korea, they only study with me, so they need more experience! Whether they win a prize doesn't matter. First, second, third, fourth- they are all the same. They just depend on the Jury’s taste.

I´ve been going to many, many competitions as a juror. I have so many different experiences… sometimes I don´t feel good about the result. But, you know, I have to forget about it! Because, what can I do? We all have different tastes. So, sometimes I am happy about a result, and sometimes- it does not happen every time, but still- I cannot agree. But that´s life…

How do you prepare your students for a competition?

I try to prepare them well. It´s a very simple answer but I keep telling them: „Control yourself!" One thing about Korean students: they are so musical, and they have such a passion, but their problem is that they don´t have a good control, especially on stage. But maybe it´s only my students...

How do you tell your students to control themselves better?

Practice slow, note by note, be careful, play every note, so I can hear everything even when I am far away… sometimes their fingers go too fast. It’s all about control- even though their fingers go fast I want to hear every note. But if they are nervous…. Everybody is nervous. But if you have a good control, you can control your nervousness.

But how can you get that control?

Only by practicing! Practice is most important. Slowly, only slowly. Slowly 99 times, and only the last one time in tempo maybe. But my students never practice slowly. They always loose their patience…

In the beginning, you were talking about „the jury´s taste“. For you, what makes a good jury?

A jury that can really listen. Nobody should have any private feeling. People should be clear, and honest. Thats very important. But sometimes, there are some very political juries too. And sometimes we can even see what's going on! Thats very dangerous- really dangerous for young competitors. They should be honest, really. If they are good musicians, they should listen carefully and judge honestly. Because young students have been listening to the others, and they know. It's very bad if they cannot trust the jury- and it’s also very dangerous. They might become like that later also!

What about yourself- you have not only been in Juries, but also played competitions yourself...

I have some bad memories, some good memories… oh well. When I tried Tibor Varga, that competition was quite famous for not giving first prize. Before me, there was no first prize for eight years. So, everybody had been saying „We need a first prize winner!“ And finally, I don´t know how, they gave me first prize. But one thing I remember: I was really impressed by the audience. When they made the announcement, it was almost 1 o´clock in the morning. And nobody left! The whole audience was still there, because they really wanted to see a first prize. And when they announced the winner, well, I was very tired and somehow not so happy at that time. I couldn´t really understand what they were saying, they were speaking in French and they pronounced my name in a strange way. But then, somehow I heard them say „Kim!“ and I thought, well, that must be it! And then, the audience went really really crazy, shouting…. If this would have been in Korea, they would never stay that long. They would say: "this is too late, let’s go home and find out from the news!“. Everybody would leave. But in Sion, they were really wonderful.