We caught up with Finalist Laura Kim who really impressed us at the auditions with her performance of Prokofiev’s 2nd Violin Concerto.
What is your main occupation at the moment?
I’m currently a 4th year undergraduate student at the Royal Academy of Music! I plan to start my masters of music degree this autumn
What made you choose to play your instrument and how old were you when you started?
I started violin when I was 8 years old – when my mom brought me to a string shop to try out different instruments, I remember liking the sound of the violin when one of the luthiers played a song for me, and immediately picked it
What made you choose the concerto that you will be playing?
I was deciding between learning Prokofiev Concerto 1 and Prokofiev Concerto 2 with my violin professor at the Academy, and he suggested that the 2nd concerto would suit my sound more – I learned a bit of the first movement after speaking with him, and agreed with his sentiment!
What do you feel you would gain from the experience of winning this competition and playing your concerto with ERSO and Chris Stark?
This will be the first time I’ve played a concerto with an orchestra since I was young, and it will also be the first time I’ve played Prokofiev with orchestra – I especially like the percussion parts and the woodwind solos that are scattered throughout the piece
While it’s thrilling to hear these parts come out during a concert, I think it would be even more exciting to listen to while performing on stage! I think I would be happy to collaborate with the orchestra members and the conductor on stage and make music together
ERSO 