Dr. Chung Park’s first year as the conductor of the St. Olaf Orchestra is in full swing.
Most recently conducting and teaching at the University of Central Florida, Park now follows in the footsteps of Dr. Steven Amundson, who retired at the end of the 2021-22 academic year. Amundson directed the ensemble and taught at the College for 40 years.
Park is committed to preserving Amundson’s legacy and the traditions of the ensemble as best as possible. He says that after a tumultuous two and half years of life in a pandemic, the ensemble needs a sense of normalcy and stability. The retirement and replacement of Amundson is already a big change, so Park plans to ease himself into the role without making many new adjustments.
“There are intangible qualities that are imbued in those traditions and that’s why they’re so great, because they’ve built up over time,” Park said.
Current Orchestra Council Vice President and Co-Concertmaster Grace Alexander ’23 recognizes Park’s commitment to tradition, though she says it doesn’t hinder his ability to be innovative for the ensemble. Alexander is majoring in Violin Performance. “Dr. Park is extremely personable and is very supportive of his students and their goals,” Alexander wrote in an email to the Messenger. “It’s very clear that he has a deep care for every student in the ensemble.”
Park and the ensemble are already hard at work preparing for their fall 2022 tour, which includes various performances in Oregon and Washington. This rescheduled event marks the first out-of-state tour for the orchestra since the beginning of COVID-19.
The liberal arts experience at St. Olaf is particularly enticing to Park, who plans to take advantage of the breadth of knowledge on campus to enrich future performances. He hopes to eventually collaborate with faculty in the biology and environmental studies departments to hold a symposium about the importance of clean water, featuring a concert from the orchestra.
Above all, Park wants to focus on establishing community within the ensemble. He says that rehearsing three times a week with the St. Olaf Orchestra — who he firmly believes is the best undergraduate orchestra in the country — is the highlight of his week.
“I don’t have any really big, grandiose goals right now. I want us to get to know each other and to start to build a relationship, ” Park said.
Full Exclusive Q&A with Dr. Chung Park
- How has the change in director of the St. Olaf Orchestra affected the music department, if at all?
“I think the answer is I don’t know yet. I think it’s gonna be years before that becomes evident. I’m actually trying not to change too many things all at once. I think just the fact that there is a new person here at all after 41 years is change enough.”
- What does this upcoming year look like for the St.Olaf Orchestra after almost 2.5 years of the pandemic and a change in director?
“The biggest thing is hopefully some kind of return to normalcy. We are going on tour – knock on wood – in three weeks and we are gonna have our family friendly concert and we are going to have fest and to some degree or not of course the most visible kind of totem of whether things are normal or not is are we wearing masks and to some degree there will probably be less masking and that’s all up to the college that’s above my paygrade. But I think things will look a little bit more normal and I think that’s a big – Frankly, I think we’re all thirsting for a return to things being a little bit more normal. One of the ways that things might look different is I am trying to engage a lot of outside artists to come in and collaborate with us and also to bring in a lot of members of the faculty here at St. Olaf. There’s such an incredible faculty in all the different departments and I think one of the things that I really want to do is try to promote this idea of interdepartmental collaboration. For instance, I want to do a concert that highlights the importance of clean water and I’ve got colleagues in biology and environmental sciences who can – you know we can do a short one or two day symposium and we can have people talking about water and the importance of clean water and about this incredible treasure trove we have in the Great Lakes right on our doorstep. And then we can culminate in our concert that celebrates water, something that we take for granted. I think that’s one of the ways things might look a little bit different. More interdepartmental collaboration.”
- How have your first couple of weeks been? Do you have any highlights?
“The highlight of every week, three days a week, is getting in front of this incredible orchestra. They really are incredible, they are all undergrads. This is not just idle boasting, it has to be the best orchestra that is completely made of undergrads in the entire country. I cannot imagine that there is a better one. And from knowing what’s going on in the field I don’t think there is. That’s something we can really hang our hat on, that’s really great. It’s busy, I’m learning a lot of new stuff. St. Olaf is a place with a lot of tradition and like I said earlier, I don’t want to change a whole lot of things because there’s already change enough. That part, you can only learn it by living it, which is not necessarily a bad thing because if I can just learn it by reading a FAQ list, I don’t really know how valuable that is because it doesn’t mean there is any kind of intangible qualities that are imbued in those traditions and that’s why they’re so great, because they’ve built up over time.”
- Do you have any hopes or worries about this upcoming year that you would like to share?
“I just want us to stay healthy, number one that’s my biggest worry. My hope is that we will get to know each other. I don’t have any really big, grandiose goals right now. I want us to get to know each other to start to build a relationship”
Interview conducted by
Elise Marlett,
Conributing Writer
