The Layers of Adversity in Classical Music: an interview with Michael Sakamoto, Randy Wong, Hyeyung Sol Yoon

In April 2022, Hear Our Voices sat down with Michael Sakamoto, Randy Wong, and Hyeyung Sol Yoon, three distinguished artists dedicating their work to Asian culture, history and pride. You can access the recorded speaker event with Hyeyung Sol Yoon, Michael Sakamoto, and Randy Wong here.

Michael Sakamoto is the Performing Arts Curator and Director of the Asian and Asian American Arts and Cultures Program at the University of Massachusetts.

Randy Wong is the president of the Hawaii Youth Symphony Orchestra, as well as a bassist in the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra. Throughout his career, he has been outspoken about the positive impact music plays in communities and education. 

Hyeyung Sol Yoon is the founder of Asian Musical Voices of America, a space dedicated to uplifting and celebrating BIPOC artists within the classical music community. She was a violinist with the Chiara String Quartet for 18 years, whose recording of the Jefferson Friedman’s String Quartet was nominated for a Grammy award in 2011.

 

Despite stereotypical assumptions about Asian Americans in any occupation, creative fields like the performing arts offer room to celebrate Asian culture.

Instead, it is often mocked and ridiculed. 

In classical music, Asians are often regarded as emotionless and sterile, and in dance, they are hypersexualized. Sakamoto clarified, “Whether it’s robot or exotic, it’s a tool of oppression. It’s a tool of control, either way. And it’s not about the depiction, it’s about who has agency over their own life, and the way they’re allowed to navigate and circulate through society.”

If Asians are not embraced in the arts, how do we counteract being Othered? Throughout our conversation, we discussed the importance of artistic connection and creating a space to belong for ourselves. Yoon mentioned a trip she took to the Korean island of Jukdo, where she was inspired by a shaman ritual shared with the whole island. 

“I witnessed how people gathered, and the purpose of the gathering, which was for community, for healing. It was such a beautiful thing to witness, and it’s something that I took home to the United States with me– this idea of what’s truly important in sharing music with other people.” She continued, “There are many, many East Asian classical musicians. But there isn’t a sense of community. And there aren’t a lot of places where we can actually talk about our identity and process what it means to be Asian in the classical music field. And that space is so needed.”

This sense of isolation can be partly attributed to the competitive culture of classical music. Unlike jazz, or even rock, classical musicians learn from a young age that success is earned by being “better” than others. Teachers and parents push their students towards competitive events that rank musicians against each other. Opportunities come from winning competitions, and winning comes from superiority. With ruthless seasons year after year, musicians continually feel the heat, as well as the weight of their reputations.

With the high numbers of Asian classical musicians, it’s especially difficult to find a sense of connection in our community. After all, how are you supposed to feel when the people who look like you, who share similar ethnic backgrounds and racial experiences, are the same ones vying for your spot at the conservatory? Unity is practically laughable to most classical musicians. Such a cutthroat environment, however, has been normalized, played off as the “nature of the field.” This me vs them mentality is exacerbated by many Asians’ fallacious zero-sum biases against any kind of challenger, not just artistic. 

It is also difficult to appreciate diverse cultures in a field where quality is determined by a Western European standard. Pitted against each other, diverse musicians are all held to the standard of the White male composer. More often than not, the “best” musician is likely the most palatable to White European judges. 

As Wong said, “Within the context of classical music… there’s a need to be perfect. And I think this comes from this kind of designation of the canon, like, Beethoven’s music, Mozart’s music that can’t be touched. It’s holy, and it’s universal.”

But it doesn’t have to be. Why must the canon exist only for Austrian, German, Russian men? Nothing in history should be untouchable, and as more musicians begin to examine the whiteness of their repertoire in an increasingly critical light, it becomes evident that respecting “the greats” does not mean we must lionize them.

“I do not want to keep playing for white people. I want to actually play and share music with the multicultural, multiethnic community that I see myself reflected in. And that community does not exist in classical music,” concluded Yoon.

Considering our guests’ shared dissatisfaction with the traditional standards of greatness, I asked them how they defined success in the face of adversity. Confidently, Wong said, “The way that I’m measuring [it] right now is actually my happiness. Am I happy today? Yes. Good. That’s a good start.”