The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 225 Beyond the Notes – Nikki Chooi on Musicality, Adaptability, and Artistic Growth

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

In this episode, violinist Nikki Chooi shares how he rebuilt trust in his playing after formal training, refined his approach to practicing, and found balance between precision and expression in performance. We talk about: How to blend slow and fast practice effectively The role of "adversity training" in audition preparation Practicing musicality with intention What changes when you stop chasing perfection and start trusting your process Why adaptability and balance are essential to long-term growth If you're in a season of transition or looking to reconnect with your artistry, this conversation offers valuable insights and inspiration. The Music Mastery Experience is where we take ideas like these and turn them into transformation. It's a full year of coaching, structure, and deep support designed to help you perform with clarity, confidence, and joy. If this episode speaks to you, I invite you to apply today at mindoverfinger.com/mme25.  JOIN THE MUSIC MASTERY EXPERIENCE HERE Download the transcript from this episode HERE     MORE ABOUT NIKKI CHOOI Website:  https://www.nikkichooi.com/ YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@nikkichooi Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikkichooi89/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkichooi/   Mind Over Finger Click www.mindoverfinger.com/coaching to book your free consultation with me. Visit MindOverFinger.com for my online courses as well as free resources on peak performance. Grab my free workshops and PDF downloads by going to www.mindoverfinger.com/resources. Connect: https://www.youtube.com/@MindOverFinger https://www.facebook.com/mindoverfinger/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindoverfinger https://www.instagram.com/mindoverfinger/     THANK YOU: Most sincere thank you to composer Jim Stephenson who graciously provided the show's musical theme:  Concerto #1 for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra – Movement 2: Allegro con Brio, performed by Jeffrey Work, trumpet, and the Lake Forest Symphony, conducted by Jim Stephenson.

Have you ever wondered how to stay grounded and expressive in your playing, even when the pressure is high and the expectations are even higher? Or how to keep evolving as an artist when you're constantly adapting to new roles, new repertoire, and the changing demands of life? If you've ever felt like balancing technical excellence, personal growth, and genuine joy in music making is a moving target, you're going to love my guest today. You're listening to the Mind Over Finger podcast, and this is episode 225.

Welcome to the Mind Over Finger podcast, where we dive into the world of mindful music making, peak performance, and crafting a purpose-driven life and career. I'm your host, violinist, certified performance and life coach for musicians, and your guide to unlocking your full potential, Dr. René-Paul Gaultier. Hi everyone, I am so excited about this conversation. My guest today is the remarkable violinist Nicky Chewy, an artist that is praised for his powerful and poetic performances, and someone whose musical journey beautifully combines depth, versatility, and purpose. Nicky is currently the concertmaster of the Grammy Award-winning Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, and he previously served as

concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, where his solos were featured in live in HD broadcasts and the Grammy-nominated recording of Rosen Cavalier on the Decca label. He's performed as a soloist with major orchestras across North America and internationally, including the Montreal Symphony, National Arts Center Orchestra, the Puerto Rico Symphony, and the Malaysian Philharmonic. His awards include first prizes in the Klein International String Competition, Michael Hill International Violin Competition, and the Montreal Symphony's Manulife Competition, in addition to being a laureate of the Queen Elizabeth and Tchaikovsky competitions. But beyond the impressive credentials, what really shines in this conversation is Nikki's

thoughtful, grounded approach to music making. He opens up about how he prepares for high-level performances, how he balances intensity with enjoyment in the practice room, how he stays artistically connected in the middle of the mending career. And we also dive into topics like building trust in your preparation, navigating performance pressure, and cultivating a mindset that allows you to grow as both a musician and a human being. Whether you're a student, a seasoned performer, or somewhere in between, Nicky's insights will speak to you because he doesn't just share what he's learned, he models it with warmth, clarity, and humility. So without further ado, enjoy this inspiring conversation with violinist Nicky Chewy. Let's go to the show.

Nikki Chui, it's so great to have you on the show. Great to have me. How are you, Renee? Oh, I'm doing great. Thank you. I'm excited to have this conversation with you today. We've known each other many years. I've met you, I think, first time when you were on tour with the NAC Orchestra performing the Beethoven Concerto, and you were just fantastic. And since then, you've had quite an amazing journey.

So let's start there. Please tell us about your musical journey, how that path unfolded for you. Sure. And yes, we do go all the way back. Good memories from that tour with the NAC. So, yeah, I was born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia. My parents were non-musical. My dad was in the computer field. And my mom, you know, she did math for her at university. So, so music was something completely foreign. And when I, when I was growing up, they wanted me to be exposed to a lot of different things. So, you know, sports, you know, I played baseball, gymnastic, a bit of soccer, and music, you know, they were just one of many things I was part of. But early on, music kind of stepped forward as something that I was most interested in and also just had a knack for it. Right. So, you know, I progressed pretty fast and that gave me a lot of motivation and encouragement.

And my Suzuki teacher back then was really supportive and really pushed me in a healthy way in which I had interest, but also had motivation to kind of keep forward. So, yeah, so that's how I started. And one thing led to another. And I attended the Starling Delay Symposium program at the Juilliard School when I was 14 years old. And that was my first time in being in a city like New York City, right? So I got really excited. I met Itzhak Perlman, Don Weilerstein was there, David Kim, Anna Kiko Meyers. So just, you know, blockbuster names and people I only, you know, heard on recordings, you know. had um you know and I remember telling my dad who went with me in that program I was like I don't

want to leave I want to stay here forever so yeah so that I would say that was the turning point around 13 14 I was like okay I want to do this the rest of my life so yeah that's amazing and you did yes yes um Nikki I have so many specific questions because I get the same thing over and over from the listeners people are so fascinated in you know musicians such as yourself that have achieved so many great accomplishments in their career so fascinated by the practicing process the performance preparation process um how to how to practice musicality things like this so if that's okay with you i'm gonna pull these questions and and start down the list sure one question that i get from listeners all the time what is uh what do you go to when you're trying to learn

a particularly difficult passage what is your approach um let me think i would say you know let's say um you know uh let's see for uh for example held in laban um we'll be playing this um in a couple weeks here in buffalo and there's obviously some you know there's standards um you know the solo passages that you know everybody's prepared for for auditions but there are other passages where you know there's it's tricky as well right so for me um how i start on those passages is to kind of play it at a medium tempo just try to see what naturally fits as a fingering not be married to fingering yet um and to see what's not what falls naturally on my hand um for example you know sometimes it's three sometimes a four you

know a fourth finger shift and what falls naturally on the hand i give myself you know if i were to do it properly you know i would start um several weeks before just to get a head start on it and and find what's comfortable i would give myself maybe i would say three to four practice sessions just you know feeling what's natural then i would decide on a fingering that's most consistent and also most um i guess it makes sense musically for example staying on the same string and shifting where it makes sense musically as well then i would kind of break it down and like really you know um you know practice in slow motion try to get a feel for it you know from a microscopic level and then once i get that feeling i actually push it up to a medium tempo and actually a fast tempo

So practicing it fast is just as crucial as practicing it slow, I think, because, you know, you use a lot of different muscles, your reflexes are different. And whereas slow practice gets you to feel all the micro moments, the fast practice gets you to feel the overall picture. So let's say something happens, you're able to kind of get yourself back on track. Without fast practice, I found it really hard to do that. um but you still need to still practice to kind of get the details in does that answer your question oh yes absolutely and i love that you're trying to see what comes naturally first i feel like something i see a lot of times as people grab the music and right away try to figure out the fingering from the get-go and then you know you pin yourself kind of in in a corner and um it's

a similar approach to what i do which is like what comes naturally what fits the musicality and i love that you're saying you give yourself you know three to four practice sessions to do that same thing with bowings too because you know as part of the role as a constant master you gotta you know deal with uh you know figure out bowings and the tricky thing about it is you know we have to prepare so much in advance for me naturally i kind of evolve my bowing decisions as i you know get to know the piece or it's sometimes just changes over time right so um again you know i like to do you just kind of play around with it uh what's natural before you know making a set decision and then you know as you know the rehearsals go by if something doesn't feel

natural obviously I'll change it as well so I like to go with what's natural first and see if that's something I can you know stick with so yeah yeah I love that and I love what you underline in terms of slow practice is important but so is fast practice yeah yeah yeah that that's something i actually learned i wouldn't say it's recent but i guess much further into my something that i incorporate much uh later in my practice routine definitely after school you know after i i finished formal school training and um kind of figure out you know those were actually crucial years you know right after school so i did my bachelor's at curtis master's at juilliard and the time in between was when i actually kind of figure out kind of you know took all the information i got

from my teachers even from high school to and then kind of made it my own you know just just figure out what works what doesn't how can i teach myself now now i'm my own teacher you know and those were actually very enlightening years for me so knowing what my what works for my body what doesn't even though you know teachers might have advised this or that's the traditional way to do it I had to kind of figure out what works and what doesn't so yeah I love that period it's such an important one to build self-trust in our own decisions yeah yeah yeah you're very busy you're concertmaster in buffalo you also are now the new concertmaster of the santa fe opera which is so exciting yeah um and you travel a lot for solo recitals you just recorded a concerto i want us

to talk about all of these amazing things later um but you talked about giving yourself three to four practice sessions to explore bowings fingerings but how about the time frame that you usually like and i know it changes from you know project to project but how long do you work on pieces and how do you approach breaking down the work and it's going to be different between orchestra solo all of this but anyway sure sure again it's uh no no that's a great question because i i love not love but interest it fascinates me to just kind of figure out kind unlock you know little bits of myself just knowing myself a little bit better on what i need what's what i like to do and kind of married to um for example what i mean by that is um what do i need

for let's say let's say preparing to perform mendelssohn violin concerto you know something that i know very well you know i went to when i was 12 um you know i have played it many times since but what do i need is let's say you know so i played it two weeks ago um how much in advance do i need to prepare for it uh for something that i know very well i would say it's it's more useful to kind of practice in spurts so let's say um just after christmas i would spend maybe half a week on just getting through all the movements you know pick different spots and maybe play through a movement or two and then i would revisit it at the end of january and again in february and then a couple weeks leading up to it that's when i kind of put it into full gear

because you know i know it really well um let's say the the basa ranchbron concerto that was new to me that's that's the one i recorded earlier in april it's a concerto i've never played before so that one i had to take a lot more time um so i had played it in rochester back in october but before that i had almost a year with the part the score not necessarily practicing or playing it but just kind of living and breathing a little bit just just you know having it with me just kind of looking at it and just kind of imagine you know the sound world the the i guess you know how it kind of fits with the orchestra the rhythm the you know the passages and you know just fiddling around with it and not so much deliberate practice that kind of came at

a later time so that's how it approached a newer you know uh concerto um as with like symphonic works let's say i don't know um something that i something that's big um let's let's say let's talk about heldenleben again you know so obviously you know i know the solo passages um and all that and i've played the whole thing before but you know just getting to be familiarizing with it i would say and and getting the boeings in order you know i started that process in january february around that and just kind of just living and breathing it again so again like you said it differs from from work to work right and then stuff like so um next week i'll be playing Bach double with my brother and we've played Bach double many times so we're gonna you know

we're gonna rehearse it you know a couple days before it'll be just fine so yeah yeah you know it's funny because I feel that people really want to know what is the specific system to do that and I mean I know how I operate as a musician in talking with you and everybody else it's one more time i want to reiterate that it really is the system that you come up with for yourself right exactly looking at your experience your knowledge of the piece how long it takes you to learn things and having that the i'm going to go back to this word again this self-trust of sort of having a theory of what could work and just getting started and see if you need to tweak along the way i don't know would you say i'm right about this i think you nailed it because it's more

like having a plan but also being open for the plan to evolve in a way that you know whatever happens right um that that helps it excel you know hopefully um and you're totally right and you know like there's no specific formula that works because you know it might have worked one way in the past but you as a person your environment everything about it is constantly evolving right So it might work in the past. It might, you probably have to tweak it a little bit in the future because, you know, life changes and, you know, you change as a person and, you know, so you got to be adaptable to that.

I think being adaptable is really important. I think that's the key word. So, yeah. What you just said makes me think of something I'd be very curious to hear you speak about is being adaptable. We change. And these two auditions that you took, Buffalo and Santa Fe were. you know apart in years you've evolved you've learned what was different between the process

and and what is you would say maybe your current approach to audition preparation um i would say i mean audition preparation is just like i would say it's just like preparing for anything else you know um i think the only difference is that it's in very short spurts and and the range the i guess the selections is a lot so an abundance of you know different works so you gotta be you know um i guess quick to switch from one style to another from one composer to another from one period to another right so i would say the preparation and difficult passages you know decisions on bowings fingerings all remain constant between um you know preparing for excerpts versus preparing anything else that you're playing but i would say the the mental

approach to being able to kind of execute on the spot with very little runway to to to get yourself there right so you know for example you know if you're playing i don't check out so you can share it all you know you have the tutti you have you know a nice opening to then you kind of settle into the theme and then you get to the hard spot sometimes but with exercise you just start there so you gotta you know be in a mindset and train yourself in that mindset to be able to suddenly boom right so yeah what does that look like for you this this mindset this mental approach the preparation the preparation for the mindset i would say just constant um repetition repetition and meaning like um just repeating um the situation as much

as possible so let's say you're i'm preparing for an audition and you know i want to train myself to be able to play x excerpt um so i just sometimes i would just pick up my violin randomly just play it or play it for people um you know a number of times and just make it just be in on in an unnatural uncomfortable position for you to be able to execute those excerpts so so that when the audition does come and it might be uncomfortable but you're already comfortable with that discomfort yeah so yeah that's what i call adversity training yeah yeah so you kind of go a little bit further than you know what you might need to deal with but then you never know right you might have to um yeah that training might might be helpful in some way or another

yeah yeah i think yeah i think i think in all the ways yes yeah yeah but then sometimes it doesn't work so you know you try again you find another method so i'm not saying that this is the way to do it but I found it helpful in some ways and of course you know there's other other things that you know might happen that you might not be prepared for and you just kind of learn along the way and just try better the next time so yeah yeah yeah yeah this is kind of bringing me back to what you talked about that period right after school and when we build that you know our new footing, that self-trust. And I find that this is a moment that a lot of people have a hard time maneuvering. There's so much information out there. Oh my gosh. You know, YouTube, Google,

TikTok, Instagram, there's, you know, all these other wonderful platforms. You know, there's people like me. And I find that people are often looking outside of themselves for all of the answers and while information is great sometimes it's difficult to to find your own voice in there what would you say to these young people coming out of school trying to find their footing starting on that professional journey um yeah how does one go about you know letting go of the dependence on the our teachers advice or outside sources advice yeah yeah no that's that's uh yeah like you said you know it's a journey and for me it's fascinating because you know like um first of all i guess if you have an abundance of information that's actually a resource right

you know you don't have to invent the wheel from the ground up you can maybe take one method and kind of personalize it to your own liking or combine several methods you know it doesn't have to be one way but i guess the most important thing is again being adaptable and if it if it's if it doesn't work you almost have to face the mirror and kind of kind of tell yourself um you know it's time time to change it up a little bit but again there's a fine line between changing it up constantly because you you need to try a few times you know like kind of double down on something and to to figure out if it's for you or not because you need a little bit of time to do that so um yeah so there's a fine line on and again it's just learning about yourself i just

want to maybe give an example of let's say a fingering that i you know or something that i'm working on you know if i'm working on if i'm doing a fingering and doesn't i can't nail it in like four or five tries i gotta switch it you know like it's it's you know switch it try something else and maybe go back to it so for me like doing it over and over if it still doesn't work you know there's a there's a you know a constant evolving process about it right so yeah whether you get back to it eventually because you've tried different ways you know and maybe have a fresh perspective or maybe i have to move my elbow a little bit you know help from the shoulder but you know you gotta move on from that and try different ways and then come back to it so yeah

yeah i like that word that you're using adaptable yeah it's like the scientific method just you know yeah develop a hypothesis experiment and then yeah tweak if necessary i love that yeah yeah because i i don't know for me i think uh the whole thing you know life in general you know if you're able to look at it objectively the whole thing is a process right it's not about just you know winning this job or um you know or playing this concerto well or doing this or that even though those might be milestones in your life but at the same time it's in the grand scheme of things it's how you kind of you know see the life in general it's a whole process too so yeah yeah I really like that yeah how about musicality how how do you work on that how do you develop

your voice as you're working on repertoire sure sure sure um how do I develop my voice um are you talking about like solo repertoire in general like or or orchestral or preparing for excerpts because i can go into like the the topic is very broad no all of it why not all of them because i think a question i get a lot is uh you know you hear people say it just never sounds exactly the way i have it in my head or um people feel that maybe the depth of emotions that they're feeling does not quite translate on the instrument so that's a question i get a lot how do i practice musicality i practice musicality um for me musicality is

it's more of a it's a more of a mindful approach you know there's um a way of phrasing a way of um i guess approaching you know harmonic changes approaching rhythm a certain way to me that's musicality um let's say if you're performing and you know there's emotion to it that's that's almost that's that's more of a you know there's there's there's a plan to it there's there's you know but there's also an x factor where it happens kind of you know spontaneously on stage um so i try to differentiate the two you know like when i'm in my practice room and and trying to figure out you know let's say you know a slow movement of a of a mozart concerto you know and to to really be convincing with the line the phrasing and and how how how much you know how

warm the vibrato should be and you know that that to me is kind of you know there's a planning to it that that kind of goes into it and then um hopefully you know i'm i'm i've gotten into my system enough that when i play it in the performance obviously you still need practice but maybe kind of practice performing it a few times to kind of let it all go and just kind of feel the music simultaneously as you play it right so there's uh again there's a process in that too you know you practice you figure it out and you practice performing it and then you actually perform it so there's three stages to that yeah yeah it's also in that quality of attention in the moment yeah exactly yeah so that when you're actually performing you're able to

feel but also be in control because sometimes you know i've had moments where maybe i've been working too much on i guess the emotional spontaneous side of things uh which doesn't mean it's spontaneous anymore because you're working on it right but kind of just you know having too much fun practicing sometimes and then in the in the on stage it kind of falls apart because i'm not in control so you know you need the control to be able to be expressive and then when you're able to again you know combine the two that's when you know good things happen so yeah i love what you just said there too because um that's one thing that i think people separate sometimes is they feel that the expression for lack of a better word i'm not

really sure how to put into words but it feels it it comes straight from their heart to their instrument yeah and what i like to say is well hold on there's kind of a few steps in between there where there's you know if you're a wind player there's the technical abilities you have with airflow and your support and if you're a violinist or you know a string player then bow technique is very important and as you said earlier choice of vibrato how wide well am i using vibrato if so how wide how fast where into the note like there's all of these decisions that we can make ahead of time combined with really good technique and in a continuation of you know building more and more skill on the instrument yeah and then yes it goes from the heart to the

instrument but it goes through this filter of skills and technique yeah yeah exactly another thing what you had mentioned earlier was you mentioned that some some people might have um difficulty in translating emotions you know they feel it but then it doesn't sound and i think sometimes when you feel something it doesn't necessarily mean that you're actually doing it you know and i think that's where the control comes in because you got to figure out okay this is you know two pretty basic terms okay this is where the phrase goes where's the high point of phrase what happens when you have a high point in phrase what break it down to very basic words is it like more pressure on the string is it you know you know wider vibrato is it um you know

flatter hair you know break it down so you actually know what it actually means it means it can mean so general to just have a high point of phrase what does it actually mean technically right yes so once you get that down and then you actually feel it and you're able to feel what you play that's yeah like you know going back to what we just talked about so yeah oh yeah beautifully played beautifully said yes it's like once you know how to execute it you can do it anytime you feel the inclination to do it exactly yes i love that yeah how about it's again it's easy easier said than done right that's why we have to practice right exactly

yeah how about finding this this balance with um that's another question i get a lot is okay so many pro programs concerts different things and how does one find balance in one's life and i have a lot of opinion on this topic but before i say anything i i'd be curious to hear what that looks like for you life like outside of music yeah the whole thing how it comes together okay okay um first of all you know i'm lucky to have a supportive wife you know she she comes you know she comes to all the concerts and um you know she also is able to stand my practicing while she's working so super lucky to have that and you know to have her as a sounding board you know to you know to kind of express you know whatever i'm going through you know as

us musicians we kind of almost live in our heads sometimes and it's healthy to have you know um you know a support system that that helps us get through it yeah uh but in terms of balancing life honestly for me it obviously surrounds you know what I do um in my in my career and to kind of fill things that you know I enjoy doing besides just the violin so um I would say uh these last few weeks have been actually like you know if i were to say an ideal succession of weeks this would be it because beginning of april i performed recorded the ranch barn concerto the next week i played mendelssohn violin concerto just outside of boston um now two weeks in a row playing here in um buffalo dvorak six mendelssohn talent and next week playing with my brother uh

bakdabo in winnipeg so um so just having that diversity of playing whether it's concerto playing orchestral playing you know and you know stuff with my brother and to fill it in with you know um i guess what we like to do you know me and my wife we like to visit coffee shops we enjoy you know just kind of exploring different neighborhoods you know and and meeting up with friends so that's that's that's you know it's it's a healthy balance so everybody has their own balance i i guess i i like watching basketball as well so that keeps me keeps me up at night so yeah yeah i find balance to be such an interesting topic because i think if we aim to achieve it perfectly then then we lack balance i feel that it's um a balancing act most of the time that's

true actually you know what is balance because you can never have so it's either you have too much work or you have you don't have enough right you have nothing right it's either or but then trying to make the most out of either or situation you know let's say you have a lower time of the season what can you use it to kind of balance out the rest of it you know maybe attend you know more fitness classes you know cook a little bit more and stuff like that and if you're really busy how can you i guess you know um find time to to kind of you know reset recharge and all that so yeah like you said it's a balancing act than finding balance yes yes thank you for sharing this very helpful nikki i i love these questions from the rapid fire so do you mind if we jump into

that of course yeah awesome let's see which ones do we okay i love this question what thought or belief has changed your life or a thought or belief that helps supporting you um i don't know where i read it but i'm sure it's been said many times it's um it's like the the quote saying it's it's about the process so you know don't think too much about where it begins where it ends but everything in between and as long as it's like a forward motion you know you learn about it every day you know the destination kind of comes and goes as you move through that you know through this train whether it's fast low medium speed doesn't matter you know you're going to go past you know different tent poles so it's about the process and trying to

you know extract as much as you can with what you have so yeah i love that a big thing for me is finding ways to make practicing enjoyable now we know practicing is also work but there are ways to make it feel more fulfilling more enjoyable and in my opinion that makes it more effective so what are some ways that you make it enjoyable for yourself enjoyable and definitely have a nice cup of coffee beside your beside your music stand uh and for me it's um it's dividing um you know finding a balancing act within your practice session you know there's gonna be periods where it's gonna be intense detailed work you know working on let's say a difficult passage like we talked about earlier

um but also there are times where you got a score study and that's also work too sometimes we kind of you know push that aside but that's part of practicing steps you know your practice session and to also leave time you know some not every day but sometimes i leave you know half an hour 45 minutes to just kind of enjoy and play to just kind of not lose sight of you know the enjoyment of playing because sometimes i get really into you know let's say figuring out you know just problem solving you know a page or two of something and you know i come out of there like oh my god like so then i you know if i just kind of go back play some bach or play something that you know a passage from the beethoven concerto it just kind of resets me just you know it just

gives me a breath of fresh air so yeah i love that how about a favorite tool in the practice room oh um it is technically my phone but you know i need to remember to kind of turn on airplane mode or something because otherwise all i can sometimes notification but you know it's got my tuner it's got my my metronome um it's got you know i can record on it you know um and you know play it back if i need to you know rapidly if i need to just check on how something sounds so yeah so i would say my my phone and check the basketball score once in a while exactly yeah yeah yeah what is a habit that you have that you know supports you that that you find supports you in your success oh a habit that i have um

i i think my wife would answer that question better um i would say i would say maybe to kind of kind of run no matter how big the pressure is no matter how looming that that that concert or that audition or that performance might be um to just kind of downplay just just to make it uh feel like every day so i try to run my my mind my habits you know as though it's just another day just you know just just create as as normal a situation as possible so i don't you know um i guess get stuck into my head too much so yeah i don't know if that answers your question but no i love this this i've never had this uh answer on the show before and it's so great it's like you put things back in perspective

all the time yeah yeah it's just another day and just things move on i love that um what skills do you think young musicians studying today should acquire in addition to learn to play their instruments in addition to just playing instruments um i would say i mean again just the topic of being adaptable right like being adaptable to the environment that you're in um being able to adapt to people that you're in because you know music making playing an orchestra playing chamber music being a soloist being this or that you know you at the of the day it's about people right so having um social skills people skills you can be an introvert but but you know that um that doesn't mean you you know um you're closed off or anything

it's just how you carry yourself and being approachable and all that so i think i think just finding what you're comfortable with and don't go out of the way and you know doing something that seems completely unnatural but i think it's still an important skill to have to be able to relate and communicate with people yeah i love that yeah finally how about a quick actionable tip that the listeners could implement today in their musical lives um actionable tip um i would say i would say I think, um, every experience that you have in life, whether it's through music, whether it's

through, uh, music making or through life in general, it all, it all kind of comes together, you know, um, into how you approach instrument, how you, how you perform, right. I, I, it's more of a i'm not i'm not sure if i'm communicating it properly but you know how you play is how you are as a person so you know like if you um go through something and experience it reflects in your playing as well so you know um take that in with an with an open arm you know like just take it all in and you know let yourself evolve and let yourself grow as a human being and that will in turn um help you grow as an artist as well really well said nikki tell us everything about where we can catch you soon so you just mentioned bach double yeah then the center face coming up i'm

sure there's some really fun things in buffalo coming up the yeah upcoming recording release everything yeah sure sure um i guess immediately i'm playing a concert um with my brother in winnipeg with the manitoba chamber orchestra so that's bach double and we have um this fantastic canadian composer um david baird um composed interludes in between the bach double movements so one based on uh i guess a bohemian style riff and then uh in between the first and second movement and in between second and third movement something um a little bit more jazzy so just something to change it up so uh we'll we'll see how it all comes together on on tuesday during rehearsal so did you practice that more than the Bach double uh honestly just just to get a hang

of it yeah yeah just to just to see what honestly I can't it's a little hard to imagine it right now without Timmy without my brother so we're gonna get a start on it this this weekend just just to put it together before we put it together with the orchestra so I think it'll be you know it'll be more clarifying so yeah concert is going to be next week and then what's happening after then i'm doing the last two performances here in with the buffalo for harmonic we're doing um gina stara and then helden laban and helden laban to to close the season so that's going to be that's going to be fun to do and then it's going to be the the opera season in santa fe which is going to be my first summer there and i'll be performing la boheme uh turn of the screw

marriage of figaro and the valkyrie so super excited for those four operas and so many of my favorites on that yeah yeah so i'm really looking forward to just being in that environment you know the you know santa fe itself is gorgeous i've been there for uh you know just a couple days at a time um never you know for an extensive period so i'm excited to kind of just live and breathe that that part of the world a little bit for the summer and then yeah so that takes us all the way till the end of summer so it's gonna be fun and exciting that sounds great i'm gonna put all of the information on where to find you in the show notes of the episode so i hope people check it out sure and uh so i just want to say thank you so much for coming on the show it's

always so fun to, you know, speak with you and hear your perspective on things. So thank you for being with us today. Thank you, Renee. Pleasure to be here. And thanks for having me. And there you have it. Thank you so much for spending this time with me today. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you'd share with your friends and colleagues, Take a screenshot, post it on social media and tag me. I'm mind over finger everywhere. I always love hearing your favorite takeaways. And if you're ready to take your playing career to the next level,

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so you never miss an update or a tool to help you thrive. Again, thank you for being here. Until next time, much love and à bientôt. © transcript Emily Beynon