Yoonmi Choi

We used both Korean and English because she sometimes had trouble expressing herself in English. I tried to translate and transcribe those parts as accurately as possible. Some of the phrasing is left as she spoke and may seem choppy, but it reflects the best way she could express herself in English while preserving the intended nuances, so I left it as is.

Christina Hur: How did you first get into jazz?

Yoonmi Choi: Well, I actually played classical music when I was young. I graduated university in classical music.

Christina Hur: Mhm.

Yoonmi Choi: Then my mom said, you need to earn money for yourself, so do whatever you want. But there aren’t many jobs for classical musicians, so I turned to jazz because I wanted to play more. Not teach, but perform as a musician.

Christina Hur: Yeah, I get that.

Yoonmi Choi: What’s your dream? Pianist?

Christina Hur: Actually, no. I like it as a hobby. I play whenever I can… it's my go-to when I’m stressed. I enjoy sight-reading, so I often search for transcriptions or anything I can find. And I’ll sight-read them, and it actually takes my mind off things. That’s what I like. But I’m not planning on becoming a concert pianist.

[more chit-chat]

Christina Hur: Have you ever been to Chicago? They have a great jazz scene there…

Yoonmi Choi: Yeah, I’ve been. It was in 2020, I think.

Christina Hur: Oh, really? That’s cool. [pause]

So you also went from classical to jazz. I think that’s interesting—if you ask a lot of jazz artists how they started, most had classical training first.

Yoonmi Choi: Mhm, some of them, yes, like me. Others just loved jazz from the start, but for me, I was into classical first. I wanted to be more of a concert pianist, and then I was looking for ways to play more. There are lots of jazz musicians playing every night, but not so many classical musicians.

Christina Hur: Yeah. You’re originally from Korea, right? And I read—I know you said you haven’t updated your website in a while, but I read that you moved to New York…

Yoonmi Choi: No, at first I moved to the Netherlands, in Europe.

Christina Hur: Oh, wow. So you’ve been all around the world? Three continents…

Yoonmi Choi: Yeah, I was in the Netherlands for four years for another bachelor’s degree.

Christina Hur: So, since you’ve been everywhere, how different are the jazz scenes?

Yoonmi Choi: Ah, that’s kind of… only musicians can really notice the differences, like between Europe and New York City. But you know, NYC is more like, old jazz. The Europeans are different… they think old is old, so you need to find new jazz. So there are many contemporary jazz musicians there. Very different kind of music.

Christina Hur: I see. I went to Korea in June because of a family emergency and ended up learning from a teacher there for three weeks. I also see a lot of Korean jazz content on Instagram, and overall it feels like there’s so much focus on learning theory and all the technical stuff… really building a solid foundation before experimenting… not exactly like how it’s presented here in North Jersey or New York. I’m not exactly sure how to explain it, but it feels really different. But I definitely got the sense that in Korea, there’s more focus on learning music theory before you even start to improvise. And the lessons feel more teacher-led and less focused on self-discovery.

Yoonmi Choi: So what’s jazz like in New Jersey?

Christina Hur: I’ve heard lots of the same tips—you need to know all the jazz standards, listen to the great recordings, and learn to transcribe and play the solos so that you know what good improvisation sounds like. And I really agree with them. Learning jazz by listening, transcribing, playing what you hear. So from early on, it’s much more about listening and improvising, compared to the really notation-heavy lessons in Korea. And once you start listening, you start figuring out what you like.

Yoonmi Choi: Right. I’m pretty sure that’s the American style. In Korea, it’s more like the teacher, teacher, teacher. It’s more like—what is A, B, C, D? You learn that A is A, B is B, write it down, memorize it.

Christina Hur: Yeah, this is so true. When I was in Korea, I really felt that difference. Honestly, I didn’t like it as much. I know the technique and theory are important, but first, I think you really need to listen to a lot of jazz. But that’s just my opinion.

Another thing I wanted to discuss… all my friends, and pretty much everyone at my school, just doesn’t like jazz. I’ve asked so many people, they always go, “Jazz? Ew, no.”

Yoonmi Choi: Korea too! People don’t really know what jazz is. If I ask them, “What is jazz?” they think I’m talking about Yukhi Kuramoto, and some of them imagine cocktail jazz. Or they think jazz is very difficult and very annoying or just very loud.

Christina Hur: I only have one friend who maybe listens to jazz, and only when studying. I found out it was only as background music, right? And… yeah.

Christina Hur: In my school jazz ensemble, we only had five people left. Two years ago, there were fifteen. Everyone wanted to leave—they hated it.

Christina Hur: Not just the music, but also the way it was taught. It was mostly big band music, obviously, but all we did was play sheet music. Nobody actually knew how to play, so everyone left.

Christina Hur: I’ve been thinking… how can jazz be more accessible? A lot of people hear “improvisation” and think it’s too complicated, so they just avoid jazz. Honestly, I used to think that too. Even classical musicians I know—even at Juilliard—think improvisation sounds impossible, and they haven’t even tried.

Christina Hur: That’s something that really pushes people away from learning jazz in the first place. There are like 500 students in my school, and the fact that almost none of them like it… it’s sad.

Yoonmi Choi: Hmm.

Christina Hur: I can’t really talk to anyone about it either.

Christina Hur: But for you—when it comes to your playing—are you just a performer, or do you also compose?

Yoonmi Choi: I do both.

Christina Hur: Oh, really? Do you take any… like, does your culture influence your playing? Or where do you generally take your influences from?

Yoonmi Choi: Okay, two different questions. Let’s start with the first one. We need to think back… back to when jazz was…

Yoonmi Choi: Back then, jazz was dance music. People listened to it to dance and enjoy themselves. That’s what it was for.

Christina Hur: Mhm, yeah.

Yoonmi Choi: Then musicians started adding technique and complexity. Music became very intricate. As jazz got harder, people who just wanted to enjoy it started listening less.

Christina Hur: Yeah, I think that was like… bebop in the 1940s.

Yoonmi Choi: Yes, exactly.

Christina Hur: I heard they did that on purpose, to explore their own style instead of just following what was popular or danceable.

Yoonmi Choi: Musically different.

Yoonmi Choi: Jazz started with dancing first.

Christina Hur: Is that like your style when you play?

Yoonmi Choi: Either both. If I want to play for an event, I do that.

Christina Hur: Oh, you do both?

Yoonmi Choi: Yeah, you need to do both.

Christina Hur: Yeah, I can kind of see that. Some of the most famous jazz musicians all have a recognizable style in their recordings.