(soft violin music) - I'm playing the violin concerto by Gabriela Ortiz, who is a Mexican composer.

This is an "Altar to Strings."

The first movement encapsulates residents of Mexico City, and Ortiz is one herself.

(soft violin music) Creating space and conserving energy, to immersing yourself in learning a piece like this is really important.

It's very compelling, riveting music, and not just in that it's fast or it's challenging and wild, but it's also very ethereal and beautiful.

(soft violin music) The orchestra's played some of her pieces before, so I've gotten to know the language of her writing a little bit, but this is really a, (Susie laughs) an immersion course of that language.

I'm Susie Park and I am the First Associate Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra.

I grew up in Sydney, Australia.

Sydney is a beautiful, beautiful city, and I'm very lucky to have grown up in such a sunny and warm climate.

When I was two, my father brought home a 16th size violin and he took me to a violin teacher and she said I was too little, but to bring me back in a year.

And so exactly a year later I went back, and that's how I began my journey as a little violinist.

(orchestral music) I loved playing the violin.

I'm incredibly lucky to have had very supportive parents who were involved heavily in my musical education.

They valued it so much, and so I loved learning.

Because they love music, I think that passion and love was really imprinted on me.

(orchestral music) A big part of who you become as a musician is strongly influenced by the kind of people your teachers and your mentors are.

I was not only taught music and technique and violining, but also structures for being a good person, discipline and how that is part of growing and developing yourself as a human and kindness and generosity.

(orchestral music) My first main violin teacher, Christopher Kimber.

Mr. Kimber used to play with the Boston Symphony, and he's Australian, but he was trained in America.

He studied with Oscar Chomsky and Galamian, and so I was really lucky to study with him and be part of the Galamian lineage, I guess.

(orchestral music) I moved to America as a teenager when I was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music for my bachelor's degree.

And then I lived in Boston for a few years to get my postgraduate studies at the New England Conservatory.

And then after that time I went to live in New York City, and that was a lot of fun.

(Susie laughs) But I was playing a lot of chamber music.

I was playing with the Chamber Music Society at the Lincoln Center.

I was doing freelancing, I was traveling a lot, playing a bit with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

I started playing with the Minnesota Orchestra in 2015, and my first concerts were the Cuba Tour in May of 2015.

And that was such a powerful experience and it was an amazing way to be folded into the family of this orchestra.

So yeah, I'll never forget that tour.

It was really a dream.

(orchestral music) Erin and I have known each other for a long time, so we're old friends.

And I think the benefits that come with that kind of relationship is that you can be very honest with each other.

- Susie and I met when we were in college.

I was one year ahead of her, so I met her, her freshman year of school and we were in the same studio.

And my last year, we played in a quartet together for the whole year, which was really fun.

I am the luckiest person alive to be sitting in with Susie Park.

She is like a true artist.

It's really a rare blend of artistry, and her playing is meticulous.

She notices everything.

She's so sensitive.

She's got radar like crazy.

And so I love sitting with someone who I trust inherently in all things.

I think we make a great team, maybe because of our shared teacher, and we went to many of the same festivals, and so we sort of have the same musical upbringing, which I think is pretty rare to have two people on the same stand that are that similar.

She brings this depth of sound and more than anything, energy.

(intense violin music) - My instrument was made in 1740 in Piacenza, Italy, and so obviously it's been around for a long time and played by many people.

This instrument's papers lists some of the previous owners.

Gyorgy Pauk, who was a wonderful, famous Hungarian violinist who recently passed away.

And he said to me, "This is the instrument that I did all of my, like the hard work of my career happened with this instrument, where I, you know, did the competitions and the concerts," that helped bring me to, you know, where he later went.

It reminded me that we're merely caretakers of instruments like these and it's history.

(intense violin music) I really enjoy being part of a sound that you're immersed in.

And I would like to think that our string sound is quite warm and rich and sumptuous and deep.

(orchestral music) Growing up in the tradition, or at least studying with teachers who valued, you know, sound production, quality of sound, I think that's informed my sensibilities, my appreciation for just a sound that you wanna be hugged by.

(orchestral music) I love to express whatever emotion, character, feeling, and I love to share that with an audience, because I feel so much (Susie laughs) when I play and I think that it's so powerful, so important.

So it's such a gift to be able to share that and communicate that with people around you and feel a connection that way, that you're experiencing something alike.

And I think that's just one of the most beautiful things you can experience in life.

And doing it with people around you who are friends and you know, it's truly an honor to do that as your work.

(orchestral music)