A Day in the Life of a Violist

Editor's note: You can hear Jordan, who will start as an Artist Diploma candidate at Juilliard in September, play chamber music by Brahms and Mozart as part of the Artist Diploma Chamber Music Showcase on May 15, 2018. No tickets are required for the free concert. Learn more.

Saltfish, Teaching, and Wild Purple

For second-year master’s violist Jordan Bak, practicing, teaching, performing, and lots of traveling made up a busy February day from the moment he left the home he shares with his grandmother in Far Rockaway until he got back almost 16 hours later.

7:30am I wake up at a comfortable hour having had a good night’s sleep. Today is a full day so I need all the energy I can get. I dismiss my alarm, drag myself out of bed, and stretch before jumping into the shower.

7:55am I dress in performance clothes—I’m playing a contemporary piece for solo viola in the ACHT Studio recital [students of Misha Amory, Heidi Castleman, Hsin-Yun Huang, and Steven Tenenbom] in Morse Hall tonight. My grandmother helps me out by making breakfast: fried dumpling, saltfish, and a cup of coffee with milk. Thank goodness for homemade Jamaican food and grandmothers—and coffee.

8:32am Two minutes late, but I’m out the door. Today is warm and foggy in Far Rockaway; I can hear the planes landing at JFK Airport but I can’t see them. I walk briskly to the subway stop and board the A train for at least an hour’s ride. I usually avoid doing anything on the subway; now’s my time to just listen to music, breathe, and allow my mind to wander. The view of the Jamaica Bay is the perfect match for the Debussy Violin Sonata that I’m listening to, an old recording of Joseph Szigeti and Béla Bartók.

9:30am We’ve been stuck at Hoyt-Schermerhorn for 16 minutes and my fellow commuters and I are getting irritated.

10:15am I walk through the revolving door at Juilliard still a little peeved that I hadn’t gotten here 15 minutes earlier. But no matter, I’ll use whatever time I have to practice. Fortunately I immediately find an available practice room.

10:18am After warming up with some scales and arpeggios, I tackle tonight’s piece, Joan Tower’s Wild Purple, a dizzying, electrifying, and virtuosic work for solo viola written in 1998 for faculty member Paul Neubauer (BM ’82, MM ’83, viola). I don’t have much time, so I only work on the trickiest spots. I want to keep it fresh for tonight, and I also have an enormous amount of other repertoire that I’d like to practice. I have a DMA audition tomorrow and a couple of Artist Diploma auditions in two weeks, and I want to feel as prepared as possible, especially under pressure.

Noon Break time. I sign out of my practice room and store my viola in my locker before heading to a cafe on 57th Street and ordering a sandwich and a coffee. I make sure to breathe and eat slowly; the rest of my day is going to get a little crazy so I embrace this hour of relaxation.

1pm Time for Robert Mealy’s Baroque as a Second Language class, which is for non-Historical Performance musicians who want to learn more about playing in the French and Italian Baroque style. We play our modern instruments but with Baroque bows. Today, we’re discussing ornamentation; our assignment was to add our own ornaments to a movement of a Corelli violin sonata in his style, and Mr. Mealy sight-reads my assignment on Baroque violin. I’m quite pleased with how it turned out!

2:45pm I head to the fourth floor for a quartet rehearsal with my classmates Zeynep, Njioma, and Noah. We’re preparing Haydn’s F minor String Quartet, Op. 20, No. 5, for a chamber music concert series in Montclair, N.J. [Faculty member] David Chan asked us to do it and I love chamber music, so I knew I had to be a part of it, even in the midst of auditions.

3:50pm Just enough time to head to Penn Station, where I grab a slice at Rose’s Pizza before boarding the 4:19 to Long Island to teach at the Malverne School of Music, where I started taking private lessons on piano at age 3 and viola at age 8. It feels great to be on the other side of things now as a faculty member and to pass on my knowledge.

5pm I’m teaching three students for 30 minutes each, and all of them are preparing for New York State School Music Association. Students who earn outstanding scores are invited to participate in the All-County or All-State orchestras. Coaching my students on their material and what to do during an audition helps me think about preparing for my upcoming auditions and brings back memories of when I was preparing for All-State!

6:52pm Heading back to the city—hope the commute goes smoothly!

7:45pm I’m never able to eat a lot before a performance, so I buy a bag of almonds and a banana—fruit and nuts usually help me manage my nerves—at Penn Station. The studio recital starts in 15 minutes but I’m not performing until after intermission, so I don’t need to be backstage for an hour.

8:15pm Back at Juilliard, my heart is starting to beat a little faster than normal. I find a practice room and just breathe, as slowly and with as much air as I can. I stand with my feet slightly apart, gently centering myself as if I’m about to start playing. Once I’m comfortable, I start warming up. I’m careful to avoid any negative thoughts; in the back of my mind, I’m also aware that this is a contemporary piece and nearly no one will know if I make a mistake, so I’ll just be myself onstage and have fun.

8:45pm I get to Morse Hall just in time to hear the end of the third movement of the Stamitz Viola Concerto. After the applause, I walk into the green room, congratulate my colleague, and play a little.

8:55pm I thought intermission lasted 15 minutes and not 10! I take about 30 seconds to breathe and tune, and then— showtime! I walk out and bow, adjust my two stands placed side by side (no time for page turns—also, the stands are always too high), and start playing. I’m aware of everything going on, even people adjusting in their seats. But somehow I feel calmer and more in control than usual, and like the audience is on my team. I’m halfway through now, sailing through the twisty, virtuosic, wild material. My fingers are slightly fatigued, I’ve already broken three bow hairs and I have no time to get rid of them, but I give as much energy and power as I can.

9:06pm I did it! The applause felt really good, like all of my hard work created a beautiful, effective picture of what Joan Tower intended. I discard a total of six broken bow hairs, pack my viola away, and listen to the rest of the recital.

9:45pm A group of us takes the elevator up to a reception in Heidi Castleman’s studio. I’m so famished it feels like I eat almost half a container of guacamole with pita chips. Heidi says my performance of Wild Purple was “mesmerizing” and Misha Amory asks how many calories I think I burned during the performance. I’m honored and feeling great about what I’ve presented.

10:20pm The A train is going local so traveling back to the Rockaways will take longer than usual, but I’m so exhausted that a subway seat sounds really comfortable.

11:45pm Back home I knock on my grandmother’s door and say goodnight before washing up and heading to bed. What a long day—but I get to play Wild Purple again for tomorrow’s audition. Wish me luck!

Second-year master’s violist Jordan Bak holds a Kovner Fellowship