the New York Philharmonic.

The violin chose me. When I was little my

family was given a kid-sized violin,

and my parents saw an ad in

the newspaper about a group violin class.

That's how I started playing the violin.

This is an old Italian violin by

Thomas Balestrieri, and it's on loan to me.

The person who loaned it to me is

Lin KeiMei (林启明), and he is from Singapore.

He is the person who actually sponsored

my trip to the USA.

That was back in 1995.

I was a soloist with the China Youth Symphony,

and Mr. Lin saw me performing, and

that's how we met him. We became friends,

and he sponsored my trip to the USA

and supported me through my studies.

It's really wonderful to see old

friends, and we all work in the same place.

I know many of them back from our Curtis days.

Our Principal Oboist Liang Wang,

our Principal Clarinet Anthony McGill,

and I also know Frank Huang from

when we were back in music festival at

Music Academy of the West.

Being a stand partner is great, because you have a

friend who will be covering for you and

mostly we have to make sure that

we have enough space.

We all share one music, the outside player

always playing and the inside player turns the pages.

As string players sometimes we

would have very difficult passages

that we have to write fingerings in,

and outside players usually write their

fingering on top of the notes, and the

inside player puts it on the bottom of the note.

To play together, exactly together

as a section, we have to breathe together.

And that comes from the conductor, and if

we feel the upbeat usually we'll all be

able to play all together.

What stands out for me in my career

in the New York Philharmonic

was our trip to North Korea,

which was very interesting

and also brought back a lot of memories

from when I was a child who grew up in

rural China. A lot of things were very similar,

so I felt very powerful on that trip.

I have two young boys, they're 8 and 10,

so I make sure they practice.

They both study violin and piano.

I want to make sure that they are educated.

When they grow up, when they go to a

concert hall, [that] they know what they're listening to.

I remember when I first joined

the Orchestra, first rehearsal sitting

inside the section. It was just amazing.

Everything sounds like I am actually in

the recording, and until this day I

still feel the same way. So the best

thing is to hear just wonderful music

every single time.