Overture Magazine: 2017-2018 Season March - April 2018 | Page 54

IMPROMPTU
YaoGuang Zhai
CLARINET
FROM THE CONCERT HALL
TO THE COURT
BSO Principal Clarinetist YaoGuang Zhai
started out in music at just three years old. But
it wasn’t the clarinet, or even a wind instrument,
that he initially tried. “My first instrument was
the violin, which I started playing when I was
3 years old,” says Zhai. “But it wasn’t my choice,
it was my father’s. I had to practice about
6 hours a day and started doing competitions
and performances when I was six years old,
but I never had fun and just wanted to have
more time to play with other kids.
“When I was ten years old, my violin teacher
moved to another city, so I had a talk with my
father and told him that I never had fun on the
violin. My father was very disappointed, but a
few months later, he came home with a clarinet
and asked me to try it and he told me that it
was an ‘easier’ instrument to play. Now I don’t
think the clarinet it’s an easier instrument, but
I fell in love with it right away at that time.”
After finding his passion in music, Zhai began
exploring other interests outside of the
concert hall. He has been a “huge basketball
fan” since he was 12, and he loves keeping up
with NBA games.
“I used to play a lot when I was in middle
school in Beijing, China,” he says. “However,
when I came to the U.S. to study, I had more
work to do, so I didn’t play as much. Playing
clarinet professionally with orchestras further
limited my time. Now I’ve been trying to play
basketball again occasionally, and I watch a lot
of games when I have time.”
Zhai is even getting his BSO colleagues in on
the game. “Lina Ma, our assistant principal
clarinetist, and James Wyman, our principal
timpanist, are also fans of basketball and
the NBA,” he reveals. “Whenever we have
break in rehearsal or the concerts we will
get together to talk about it. We have been
wanting to play some games and also go to
D.C. to see the Washington Wizards — it’s
been very busy but we are hoping to make
that happen sometime soon!”
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And his favorite team? “I’m a Toronto Raptors
fan, since I lived in Toronto for 5 years.”