Tricia Park
About
TRICIA PARK
Violinist | Writer | Educator
Praised by critics for her “astounding virtuosic gifts” (Boston Herald), “achingly pure sound” (The Toronto Star), and “impressive technical and interpretive control” (The New York Times), Tricia Park enjoys a diverse and eclectic career as a violinist, educator, writer, curator, and podcaster.
Tricia is the producer and host of the podcast, “Is it Recess Yet? Confessions of a Former Child Prodigy.” She is the recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, a Fulbright Grant, and was selected as one of “Korea’s World Leaders of Tomorrow” by the Korean Daily Central newspaper. Since appearing in her first orchestral engagement at age 13 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, she has performed with the English Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra of South Africa; the Montreal, Dallas, Cincinnati, Seattle, Honolulu, Nevada, and Lincoln Symphonies; and the Calgary, Buffalo, and Westchester and Naples Philharmonics. Tricia has given recitals throughout the United States and abroad, including a highly acclaimed performance at the Ravinia Rising Stars series. Other career highlights include her recital debut at the Kennedy Center, appearances at the Lincoln Center Festival in Bright Sheng’s The Silver River, her Korean debut performance with the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) Orchestra and collaborations with composer Tan Dun. Tricia also performs non-classical fiddle as half of the violin-fiddle duo, Tricia & Taylor, with fiddler-violinist, Taylor Morris.
Tricia is the founder of the Solera Quartet, the winner of the Pro Musicis International Award and the first American chamber ensemble chosen for this distinction. Acclaimed as “top-notch, intense, stylish, and with an abundance of flare and talent,” the Solera Quartet performed their debut recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall to celebrate their addition to Pro Musicis’ roster. The Soleras’ debut album, Every Moment Present, features music by Janacek, Mendelssohn, and Caroline Shaw and was hailed by The New York Times as “intoxicating….The quartet’s playing on the recording is sensitive and finely articulated throughout and the sound bright and vivid.”
Passionate about arts education and community development, Tricia is the co-founder and artistic director of MusicIC, a chamber music festival that explores the connections between music and literature. Tricia received an MFA from the Writing Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was a recipient of the New Artist Society Scholarship and was awarded a Writing Fellow Prize. Her writing has been published in Cleaver, Alyss, and F News Magazines and she has been a finalist for contests in C&R Press and The Rumpus. She has taught writing for the Iowa Summer Writing Festival at the University of Iowa and she is also the co-lead of the Chicago chapter of Women Who Submit, an organization that seeks to empower women and non binary writers. Currently, Tricia teaches creative writing for Cleaver Magazine where she is also a Creative Non Fiction editor.
Tricia received her Bachelor and Master of Music from the Juilliard School where she was a recipient of the Starling-DeLay Teaching Fellowship. She has performed chamber music with Pinchas Zukerman, Cho-Liang Lin, Michael Tree, Gary Hoffman, Paul Neubauer, Robert McDonald, and members of the American, Guarneri, Juilliard, Orion String Quartets and Eighth Blackbird. Former teachers include Dorothy DeLay, Felix Galimir, Cho-Liang Lin, Donald Weilerstein, Hyo Kang, and Piotr Milewski.
Tricia has served on faculty at The Juilliard School, the University of Chicago, and the University of Iowa. She has also taught masterclasses and clinics at the Peabody Institute of Music, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, Dartmouth College, the Longy School of Music of Bard College, McGill University, and the Interlochen Summer Arts Academy
Over my 20+ years of teaching experience in higher education and music schools, I’ve developed a unique flexibility in my pedagogy that allows me to effectively teach and mentor a range of students who span a wide spectrum of abilities, training, and professional aspiration.
Drawing upon my own diverse and varied background as a performer and teacher, I am well equipped to mentor students in developing the hard and soft skills necessary to create careers that are exciting and unique to them. I believe the sign of an exceptional teacher is that each student has an individual and personal style. Ultimately, I believe my main task as a teacher is one of facilitating. I act as a guide and resource for students as they move through their own personal journeys. I help to prepare them for life after graduation and send them forth with the necessary tools for finding success in a life in art.
Being a violinist in the modern age is a challenging and complex endeavor. Today’s young artist is expected to perform at the highest level of technical and musical achievement and to approach their professional enterprises in a fresh and personal manner. In addition, modern performers are called upon to be “artistic ambassadors,” or advocates for the arts, and as such must be effective communicators and develop an entrepreneurial mindset.
Music is a powerful tool for self-expression and communication. Any musician must master the intangible arts of articulating what one hears and communicating it musically and verbally. Writing and storytelling are also essential skills for the modern musician. The ability to articulate one’s thoughts and communicate them in a creative, poetic, yet clear way will serve any student, regardless of their ultimate professional destination.
As a concert violinist, writer, educator, and podcaster, I seek to combine the rigor of my classical music training with the experimentation of creative writing in my pedagogy. I’ve found that the skills we develop as classical musicians are completely transferable to the skills needed to become an effective writer: critical thinking, problem solving, and a commitment to practice.
In response to the ongoing Covid pandemic, I’ve developed a range of innovative teaching approaches and curriculum to address the unique challenges and needs of students during these unprecedented times. My students have gone on to graduate studies at such institutions as the New England Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and have received grants from the Fulbright Program for studies abroad.
EDUCATION -
School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
Master of Fine Arts in Writing, 2019
New Artist Society Merit Scholarship Recipient; MFAW Writing Fellowship Prize, 2019
The Juilliard School (New York, NY)
Bachelor of Music, 1998, Master of Music, 2000, Professional Studies, 2001
Violin Performance
TEACHING -
University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
Lecturer, Chamber Music Coach, Artist-in-Residence, 2019-2021
University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN)
Associate Professor of the Practice, Department of Music, 2011 – 2018
University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA)
Lecturer in School of Music, 2005 – 2011
The Juilliard School, Starling-DeLay Teaching Fellow (New York, NY)
Teaching Assistant to renowned violin pedagogue, Dorothy DeLay 1998 – 2000
Here's my approach to teaching:
A strong technical foundation, drawing from various traditional schools of violin technique.
Students are guided through the traditional studies and repertoire that are necessary for building a thoroughly developed technique that allows them complete artistic freedom. Technique is used to achieve full musical and artistic expression.
An exploration of different musical genres in the quest for one’s own individual style.
In my teaching, I regularly utilize such non-traditional pedagogical techniques as “learning by ear” without the aid of sheet music and facilitating student learning to include basic principles of arranging, improvisation, and composition through immediate, hands-on learning of music from many traditions - Old-time, Celtic, and pop tunes, just to name a few. Alongside their traditional classical studies, this type of musical exploration allows students to develop important skills, including improvising, arranging, and developing fluency in other genres, that are becoming increasingly more crucial to the kind of versatility necessary for musicians to thrive in the 21st Century.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
My commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion in academia and in the larger performing arts culture is deeply rooted in my personal experience and creative practice. I am a recipient of a prestigious Fulbright Grant which allowed me to reside and conduct research in Seoul, South Korea, where I continued work on a literary and musical book project that examines the experiences of implicit and explicit racial bias, erasure, and invisibility of East Asians in classical music and the ways in which this is echoed in the large dominant culture. As a Korean diasporic writer, musician, and educator, my ongoing creative work and pedagogical focus continues to reflect my commitment to enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Career development and mentoring.
It is an incredibly exciting time to be a musician. For those who are up to the challenge, one can build a unique, distinctive life in music. Boundaries between disciplines and genres are blurred, allowing for creativity to blend styles and art forms.
Mentoring students through the challenges of building a career is of great interest to me. Building and establishing a career is one thing but what about maintaining it? And, what if one falters along the way?
In addition to the skills outlined above, I’ve learned skills from participating in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Management Program. I also write and talk about mental health issues on my blog and podcast, a topic that is still somewhat taboo in the classical music industry. However, in an ever-changing world with growing professional and personal uncertainty, there’s a strong need to help music students reframe success and failure, cultivate their own values so they may develop their own content and platforms, and flexibly reimagine their careers so that they may adapt and thrive.