Violinist Clara-Jumi Kang shines on Dubai Opera stage at InClassica 2024

As the 2024 InClassica International Music Festival, organised by SAMIT Event Group, continues to headline at the UAE’s majestic Dubai Opera, more and more maestros from the top echelons of the contemporary classical music world are arriving in Dubai to perform on its stage.

The latest entry in this dazzling list is none other than South Korean/German violinist Clara-Jumi Kang, the winner of the 2009 Seoul Violin Competition, 2010 Sendai Violin Competition and 2010 Indianapolis International Violin Competition.

A recipient of the Daewon Music Award (2012) for her outstanding international achievements as well as Kumho Musician of the Year (2015), Kang has performed with orchestras including the Warsaw Philharmonic, Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Mariinsky Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, with conductors such as Boreyko, Fedoseyev, Gergiev, Kremer, Mena, Poppen, François Xavier Roth, Varga, Lü Jia, Chung, Holliger, Märkl and Yamada, to mention a few.

She has toured all around the world performing on the “Thunis” Stradivarius of 1702, and recently returned to Dubai to deliver a concert at InClassica on February 6. We met up with the violinist after the event, and sat down to talk with her about her experience in Dubai.

How has it been to take part in the 2024 InClassica International Music Festival?

Well I arrived just yesterday. We had a very intensive good rehearsal yesterday and today we played the concert. I played the Bruch violin concerto and then Alexey Shor’s 5th violin concerto, and I’ve had a really great time with it all. I think Dubai opera is a beautiful venue and I really admire the artists that come here to this festival. It’s always fascinating to play in places where one doesn’t go so often in the season and I think Dubai and Abu Dhabi are wonderful, and they’re cities where I’d like to also spend some time, although this time I’m leaving early tomorrow morning, I’m afraid, but it’s always nice to be in a bit of a warm climate as well!

What was it like to perform alongside Anu Tali and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra?

It was my first time with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and Maestro Anu Tali but we’ve had such a nice time together. It went very smoothly from the very first second. This orchestra is incredibly flexible and they listen so thoroughly to how I play and to the conductor. And the conductor, Anu Tali, she’s absolutely brilliant! And, I think, you know, it’s not just a question of a conductor fitting to the soloist, but it’s a relationship that goes both ways and only works both ways, which I felt that it did here.

Can you tell us a bit about the programme that you presented this evening?

We started with Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and then moved straight on to the Violin Concerto No. 5 from Alexey Shor, the Composer-in-Residence. I think the Shor piece fits so well with the Bruch concerto. It was all done in the first half so that I started with the Bruch and then we did the Shor so that it kind of – although the Shor violin concerto is a proper violin concerto with three movements – but I think the audience can also see it a little bit as an encore to the first half, because it’s so festival-ly written, and it has a lot of percussion, and a lot of timpani. So I think we have a lot of joy with it after the Bruch which is a little bit more serious, and it worked well.

Shor is a very lyrical composer I think. Also for the audience, it’s an incredibly ear-catching piece, with the melodies he uses. I’ve had the chance to play other works of his, like the sonata he wrote with Maestro Pletnev, and I think it’s amazing that you can instantly catch that it’s written by him. He has his own signature I think and melody line.

What is it that you hope audiences in attendance will be able to take away from this evening’s concert?

Well I think that being in a concert in general gives you a little bit of an escape from reality, from our modern fast-paced reality, and whatever is being played in that evening gives you a little bit of space to just relax and kind of also meditate. So I recommend everyone to just come to any concert really, and just sit and let yourself be immersed in it all.

Do you find anything about the Middle East that influences your performance, or perhaps changes your approach?

I think the food is very tasty here so that helps! Actually I’m not really someone who goes to a new place and absorbs the place and then changes the music accordingly because basically I’m in my hotel room getting ready for the concert; I wouldn’t really know where I am! But I’m sure that in the concert itself I feel something from the audience that I can’t really describe in words but I’m sure that they give me something which then I respond to.

The InClassica International Music Festival concluded at Dubai Opera on February 15. For more information, visit the official website inclassica.com.

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