Korean maestro concert a ‘success’

Dr. In Hong Cha playing the violin with Saipan-based pianist Hye Yeon Hwang at the Mt. Carmel Cathedral Thursday evening. (Erwin Encinares)

The visit of a Korean master violinist and maestro Thursday evening at the Mt. Carmel Cathedral was a “success” according to the organizer on Saipan.

JP Entertainment president Jun Ho Park said in an interview that Dr. In Hong Cha’s performance at the cathedral was a success as it garnered an estimated 300 spectators that evening.

“This concert is for the people of Saipan since Super Typhoon Yutu brought [a lot of] damage to the island,” he said. “The concert is to incite encouragement and a feeling of hope for those affected,” he continued.

“I called [Cha] requesting him to come to Saipan,” he said, adding that he had to explain the situation of the island. He soon agreed to do the concert.

“This is my third concert,” Cha said in an interview. “[Park] invited me to do a concert here, [and I agreed], especially with the situation of the islands after Typhoon Yutu,” he continued.

He noted that he agreed to do the concert to encourage the residents of Saipan through his music and that it was a shame a typhoon had to destroy “such beautiful islands.”

Cha is a professor of music at the Wright State University in Ohio and is also the official university orchestra conductor; professor of violin; and 1st violin of faculty string quartet.

He was presented the 2018 Best Classical Album of the Year award and the Best Classical Artist of the Year award during the 2018 Pepsi Music Awards in Venezuela in early 2018. The award was designed to highlight the best of Venezuelan musical talent and was presented to Cha on Sept. 27, 2018, in Caracas, Venezuela.

Cha was honored with the award through his album, Textures From the North of South, which is a musical coordination between Cha and Colombian-Venezuelan music producer Hildemaro Alvarez.

Cha is also a former concertmaster at the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra and former principal of the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra, and has received the Korean presidential award for the most distinguished Korean living in a foreign country.

Cha is an active performer in the United States, Europe, South America, and Asian countries. Two Korean Broadcasting System documentaries are based on his autobiographies, Beautiful Man and Beautiful Success, which was published in 2003, and Wheelchair is my Wing, which was published in 2012.