Nisky native plays viola with Philadelphia Orchestra
Niskayuna native Jonathan Chu said he remembers summers spent on the lawn at Saratoga Performing Arts Center watching the performance of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Now he is on stage with the orchestra.
I remember going to see them at SPAC when I was younger and sitting on the lawn watching them, and I never thought I would be playing with them, said Chu, violist with the orchestra. `Playing with the orchestra is like a dream come true.`
Chu started to play the violin at 5 years old, taking after his older brother who had been playing for a number of years. He even took lessons from the same teacher as his brother.
Some children would go to soccer practice or some other sport, but Chu said it was his aspiration to make music his career.
`It really wasn’t my conscious decision. … I just kind of played it, and it was something that I did,` said Chu. `As I grew older I enjoyed it more and more.`
For several years, Chu went to the summer festival Meadowmount near Plattsburg while in high school. This is where he also met a professor from Vanderbilt University.
Even though Chu was interested in music, applying for a conservatory seemed too focused for him at the time. In high school, he took AP classes and enjoyed math and English too. This led him to double major in music and economics, receiving bachelor’s degrees in both fields. Music continued to be his main passion though.
After Vanderbilt, Chu decided to apply to The Julliard School for an intensive focus on music study to receive his master’s degree. The environment of Julliard allowed him to grow in his music passion and technique with a community of talented students. Carnegie Hall was also only a 10-block walk from the campus.
`I loved my teachers there and I loved my classes there, but it was my experiences that shaped my playing,` said Chu. `Julliard is what you get from going to a conservatory in a big city.`
After Julliard, Chu played violin with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, but eventually left his job to go back to New York in search of freelance work.
Chu also has an interesting story on how he made his switch to the viola over the violin.
While freelancing he went to the Marlboro festival in Vermont, but there were no openings for a violin player, so he just decided to buy a viola to fill an opening. The following two summers he said he only played the viola. The switch wasn’t too hard, said Chu, because the viola was similar to playing the violin.
In September 2008 Chu noticed an opening in The Philadelphia Orchestra for a viola player and decided to give it a shot. To his surprise, he was accepted into the orchestra and now his main focus is only on the viola.
`Every section of the orchestra is great,` said Chu. `What’s special about this orchestra is I really get the sense they are playing with each other a lot of people in this orchestra have known each other for years`
Besides classical music, Chu also enjoys listening to different kinds of rock music and even played with the New York City based rock band Vampire Weekend on their first and second album, along with some live performances. He found out about the opportunity from a fellow classmate at Julliard, who said the band was looking for a violinist who could also play viola.
`It was sweet,` said Chu about recording for Vampire Weekend’s first album. `I went to the studio in Brooklyn and just recorded all day. I didn’t see any music ahead of time and did things on the fly.`
When Chu went to record for their second album, he said most of the songs were completed and the keyboardist, Rostam Batmanglij, did the string writing. Chu said Batmanglij was very interested in the string elements of their music.
`It is really fun just to shake it up a little bit sometimes it is fun to have a drum set next to you,` said Chu.
Some of Chu’s other hobbies include playing cards and ‘volley pong’ with orchestra members, which appears to be a more wild version of ping pong. He said it is hard to describe, but it is really fun to play. Chu is also enjoys watching baseball.
`I’m a really avid Yankees fan, but it didn’t sit too well with the orchestra,` he joked.
During August, Chu, 28, will be performing several shows at SPAC with the orchestra on Wednesday through Saturday the first three weeks of the month. For information on shows you can visit www.spac.org and view their calendar of performances.“
