SoJung Kim shares her journey from discovering the double bass in Korea to joining the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. A graduate student at the Colburn Conservatory studying with Peter Lloyd, SoJung has performed with the One Korea Youth Orchestra and Orchestra Ensemble Seoul, spent summers at the Pacific Music Festival and Music Academy of the West, and first came to the instrument after hearing the deep resonance of a bass ensemble at her cousin’s concert.
We talk about SoJung’s move from solo repertoire into the world of orchestral excerpts, the wake-up call of studying alongside highly prepared Colburn colleagues, and the practice routines that helped her prepare for a massive San Francisco Opera and Ballet audition list.
She shares why long tones and glissando work became central to her warm-up, how recording lessons and asking for feedback shaped her preparation, and what she has learned from playing Nutcracker and other ballet repertoire night after night.
This conversation has been edited for clarity.
Jason: I met you, I think, at the bass bash this year. But then it was so fun to be able to spend some time with you at the Golden Gate Bass Camp. We played bass quartets together, and I was so happy that the session you did for the students was about your journey, which is kind of what this podcast is about. So I thought, let’s please do a podcast!
SoJung: Mostly I talk to students about how I came to the US and then became a professional bass player. But I thought about it, and I wanted to talk about more — like from the beginning, how I started playing the bass.
Growing Up: Piano, Music, and a Life-Changing Concert
SoJung: So growing up, I wasn’t the type of person who would just sit at a desk and read books or something. I rather — I had a piano in my room when I was young. So I spent most of my time playing piano, and then when my mom was having a rough day or something, she would ask me to play something for her, and she felt better with the music. At that time, I realized how music can heal people, the power of music, and how comforting it can be. I think that’s why I ended up wanting to start learning more instruments. Not only piano — I picked up violin and flute — but I never thought I was going to be majoring in it.
But everything changed when I went to my cousin’s concert. She was also a bassist. She studied at the same school as Mikyung (Sung). And that was like a school bass ensemble concert.
I saw like 10 different bass players on the same stage playing bass ensemble. It was like it really gave me a shock — that reach, you know, the bass resonance sound. So after that concert I asked my mom, “Can I play bass?”
So I got to have a first lesson, but at first my dad was kind of against it because he felt music should be for people who have natural talent. But I begged him; I genuinely showed him how passionate I am, and then he gave me full support. That’s how I started bass — when I was 15 years old, I think.
And then I was preparing for the arts high school entrance audition. I only had like one year to prepare for that, so I just needed to learn the Dragonetti Concerto or just one nice piece to get into the school. I didn’t really have time to practice scales or études — I just jumped into the piece, and I really liked it because I got to skip the boring part and just play the nice concerto. And then luckily I got into arts high school and got to spend more time learning how to play the bass. After I got into high school, I got to spend time on the études and all the scale stuff I had skipped before. Scales, études, all different solo repertoire in Korea!
It was mostly solo repertoire in Korea — as I told my class at the Golden Gate Bass Camp, I never had the opportunity to learn orchestra excerpts in Korea. Even when I played orchestra excerpts, I don’t think I actually enjoyed playing in the orchestra before.
The First Audition and the Road to Colburn
SoJung: Right after I graduated with my bachelor’s degree, my teacher suggested I take an audition because it was time to get a job after graduation. He sent me the audition site — it was called the Gyeonggi Philharmonic in Korea. It was like a regional orchestra. And then I took that audition. That was the first time I learned real orchestra excerpts — it was so boring because it’s just short quarter notes; it’s not even a melody.
I was like, is this the music I have to play forever? And my teacher was like, “Yep, if you want a job.”
And then I dug in and learned the different strokes and different types of sound I needed to project for these excerpts.
The mindset for me at that time was like, even if I don’t get this job, I don’t really care — I just want to try a new opportunity after school. So I took it, and I made it to the final. And then I left for the interview. I was so messy and so unorganized at the time. I completely got the wrong time for my interview. So I was auto-disqualified for that audition. And that was like the last thing that happened before COVID hit. So I was kind of lost, wasting my time after that, because I thought it was the stupidest thing I had ever done.
After COVID hit, I was struggling to figure out what to do next. But then I realized the timing was kind of lucky for me, because all the American schools had switched to video submission instead of live auditions because of COVID. So I could just make a nice video and send it to all the schools in the States. I decided, why not? I’ll make a nice recording and try all the American schools. That’s why I applied — Colburn, Juilliard, I applied everywhere. And luckily I got into Colburn. They offered me a full scholarship, which was a great opportunity, so I took it.
It was a huge, huge step for me because I had never even lived away from my parents’ house. Off to Los Angeles. And now I had to live 11 hours apart from Korea in a whole different city. I could barely believe I was living in downtown Los Angeles.
Life at Colburn: Wakeup Calls and Studio Culture
SoJung: I remember I had to prepare a seating audition on the very first day of school. Of course, I had to learn all the different composers’ orchestra excerpts. I think the school made me want to work on pieces because they always put some kind of assignment, and I’m the type of person — give me the assignment and I want to make it good. So I practiced hard when I first got into school.
It was a small campus with one or two buildings, but it provided a really good environment. I got to see the LA Phil right across the street with $10 student rush tickets. I could see their concerts whenever I wanted, and Gustavo Dudamel was coming every year. It was like a completely different culture for me to learn music at the time. And the Colburn practice rooms were open 24/7 — so even if I wasn’t organized enough, I could just go up there whenever I wanted and practice all day. That was also really helpful.
So I got more serious about orchestra auditions and about the bass. It was the first studio class I had at the school — I saw my colleagues playing like 40 different orchestra excerpts. We had three different rounds, and he gave us a mock audition, and he was playing so well.
He was pretty much the same age as me, and I was so shocked that they were already ready to play the whole repertoire and take major orchestra auditions.
After seeing that, I was like, “Yeah, I should catch up.” That was a real wake-up call for me.
And how they were practicing, how they were playing — just seeing them play orchestra excerpts was new to me. We would always play for each other, not only in lessons from the teachers. I think I learned even more when I saw the people I studied with, because they were all going to take the auditions at the same place. I played for them a lot; I got feedback a lot. That’s why I tried to do the same studio class thing at the Golden Gate Bass Camp for the students — so they could learn from each other.
Jason: Yeah, that was a really good time. It was a really good studio vibe when you were there. And also, you did Pacific Music Festival, didn’t you?
SoJung: Yeah, I did Pacific Music Festival, and I did Music Academy of the West. It was the best time during the summer. I got to spend time with Alex (Hanna) — Nico (Abondolo) wasn’t there at the time. You know, you don’t get to see major orchestra principal bass players if you don’t apply for summer festivals. So I think it was a really good time for me.
Jason: There’s a recording of you from 2021 playing the Bottesini First Concerto in F sharp, and you sound absolutely fantastic. And that was before you came over to Coburn, right?
SoJung: It was my graduation recital for the bachelor’s. Yeah.
Jason: How cool. Then you come over, and then you have this whole new chapter of digging into the orchestra excerpts. And you’re so right — even if your lesson with your teacher is great, that’s only an hour or two hours. You spend seven or eight hours a day around your colleagues, and they’re also getting ready for the same audition, and you’re playing for each other. Who’s surrounding you at your own age — it’s so important!
SoJung: Lessons were also important for me because my teacher gave me structure — what I need to work on. But while I was working on things by myself, when I couldn’t figure out what I should do, having friends who had already figured it out for a long time before me was so helpful. I used to just dig straight into pieces without even having a warm-up or scales.
But I finally figured out how to organize my practice routine because I didn’t want to waste my time.
I started organizing my day — especially for audition time. Breakfast, then warm-up routines, then lunch, then finally work on the excerpts. It feels really different just starting with the excerpts when your body is going to feel so stiff and cold. But if you do the right amount of warm-up routine, it’s going to make you feel grounded when you dig into the excerpts afterward.
Practice Routines and Warm-Up
Jason: What did you do for warm-up? And what went into that part of your day?
SoJung: My favorite warm-up routine is definitely the long tones from Joel Quarrington’s book. He starts with the long tones — just feel your body like a jellyfish. I was having a hard time feeling grounded in my right arm. So I always start with the long tone — set the metronome as slow as possible, like quarter note 40, and then just open string for at least five minutes, just feeling your arms.
Then go on to string crossing, probably just G and D, and then on the A and E strings too; you just need to find the right amount of weight to put on. And then maybe move on to the left hand. I work on my left hand to find a nice glissando so that you’re not going to jump to the wrong intonation, because I always hear the intonation when I’m shifting.
My favorite left-hand routine is using one finger and going down all the scales with the first finger, then trying the second finger or the fourth finger—just finding the right intonation with your favorite scales. That good warm-up routine won’t take more than 20 minutes, but it’s just perfect before working on the excerpts.
Jason: That’s so important for people to hear. You don’t just dive right in.
SoJung: I used to do that, and then your body would feel terrible afterward. Having a good warm-up routine is really important. I just figured that out a few years ago — I didn’t even know when I was young because I didn’t feel pain. But now if I don’t do that, my left fingers hurt immediately after 30 minutes, and your body is in pain, you know.
Jason: Something you said to the students at camp that I thought was really cool — when you talked about getting into the excerpts, I think you said something about starting with maybe the classical repertoire first, or the slightly simpler excerpts. Can you talk about that?
SoJung: Yeah, because if you get the audition repertoire list, there’s Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms — all different composers. But I said to the students, I want to start with the simpler, classical composers first because they give you a good start feeling.
I don’t think the audition committee is going to ask you to play Heldenleben as the first excerpt — hopefully not; that’s too brutal.
So I want to do the same kind of process as if you are in the audition. I usually start with the classical composers’ music first so that I can feel the tempo, the stroke, something like that. It’s a natural, good way to start the excerpts practice, because if you start with Mahler or Shostakovich, it’s just too much tension sometimes, too intense. So I kind of want to start lightly, and then if I feel good, I move on to Beethoven, put more rosin on, and then go into Shostakovich or Heldenleben, whatever the harder composers’ excerpts are.
Jason: As you started preparing for these auditions, did you try to touch every excerpt every day, or would you group things until they were ready to go?
SoJung: Especially for the ballet and opera auditions, I had to cover almost 37 or 38 different excerpts that I had never heard of. So when I first saw their audition repertoire list, the first thing I did was dig into YouTube and find my favorite recording, and then listen to it every day as much as I can. So that you can feel the vibe — the right tempo, the color, the sound you want to play for. And I think it’s really important to know what’s going on while you’re playing that part — what the other orchestra instruments are playing.
Ballet and opera were really hard to figure out because there’s so much going on. But just listening to my favorite recording was also healing, you know, like I love listening to the ballet and opera. So I tried to listen as much as possible when I was learning new pieces, and then I wrote down the tempo or fingering if needed. Once you get used to the vibe, you can start to put in your own musicality, the sound that you want to play.
And of course you need to play for someone and get some feedback — to see if your musical interpretation is too far away from where it should be. So that’s the process while I was preparing auditions — learn the music, get used to it, and then add what you want to do.
Jason: How often did you play for other people? And how did you organize the feedback? Did you write it down or just keep it in your head, or record it?
SoJung: I record the whole thing. I usually just record my lesson — I ask my teacher, “Can I record?” I usually have the whole session recorded, then listen back and take notes while I’m listening, so I can remember and write it down. People usually told me good things and bad things at the same time. So I want to improve on the good things, and if there’s something they don’t like about my playing, I take a note and work on that afterward.
Jason: That’s so great. Recording and listening back — it can be so hard, but if you actually just listen back to what happened, that’s about as objective as you can be. And then to layer in their feedback on top of that, it’s almost like you’re getting a second lesson.
SoJung: I think that’s the time you improve the most.
Because even at the audition — if I don’t make an audition, I still email the orchestra manager and ask if they have any feedback. They usually do.
So it always helps me work on the next audition, because you don’t know — they’re not going to tell you what’s wrong with your sound when you’re playing for them, right? So I think it’s really good to know what you need to work on and what’s important to the committee.
The San Francisco Ballet and Opera Audition
Jason: I’ll set the context for people — there was a San Francisco Opera and Ballet audition, a combined audition. That’s what SoJung is talking about with almost 40 excerpts. So, how far out from the ballet audition did you get the list?
SoJung: They came out pretty late. I think I had a little more than one month.
Jason: That’s not a lot of time. I remember talking to Alex Hanna about the Chicago Symphony audition and he had like five months to prepare. Six weeks or less is a lot of music, and music you don’t know — the world of opera and ballet, those are not excerpts we typically work on. So how much time were you putting in on a daily basis getting that list ready?
SoJung: I try not to over-practice because I’m just going to get burned out if I try too hard from the beginning. To be honest, before I was preparing for the ballet audition, I was aiming for the Colorado Symphony audition — just a few months before. I thought that was going to be my last audition, and I was going to get a job and graduate. But it didn’t go as well as I planned. So after the Colorado audition, I would say I was burnt out because I had been aiming for that so badly. And then after Colorado, I graduated, and the downside of Colburn is you need to get out of the dorm when you’re not in a semester. So I had to rent an Airbnb for the summer while preparing for the ballet audition. I had to drive to the school practice rooms back and forth for almost a month and a half after I was already burnt out.
So I took like two or three days off after that audition, and then just looked at the music. I found the recordings first and just listened while on the way to the school practice room or on the way back to the Airbnb.
I tried not to rush learning the music — I was trying to feel the vibe first. Because sometimes when I was working on symphony music, I tended to just imitate people’s sounds, since there are so many bass player videos on YouTube. I sometimes just forgot how I sound or how I want to sound, and I was just playing excerpts exactly the same as people on YouTube.
So especially for the ballet and opera audition, I was trying to listen to the music more and be more myself. I practiced at least four hours per day — it wasn’t bad. I think four to five hours is a good amount, not more than that.
Jason: And you’re working on your musicianship for a big chunk of the day even as you’re driving to the practice room and listening. That’s working on your musicianship too. And for orchestra auditions, you look up Mozart 40 (Symphony) and we can find tons of recordings of bass players playing it. But you’re probably not going to find many YouTube recordings of bass players playing opera or ballet. So in a way, maybe you had a chance to put your own personality into it.
SoJung: Yeah, I found Jeremy McCoy playing a lot while I was preparing, and of course I watched that video, and it was helpful. But in general, I think I wanted to try to put my own personality and musicality at least for this audition, because it was kind of a different concept and music than I was used to.
I approached it pretty much the same as when I work on symphony music — turn on the metronome and tuner, set the right tempo, figure out the right fingering. But afterward I was really just trying to sing and make a beautiful sound for the music.
And I think I learned the most through the audition sessions themselves.
Every time the committee asked me to play again, they asked me to think that I was playing in a section with eight different bass players. That was like a real shock to me, because I never imagined being in the section when I was practicing by myself in a little practice room.
Sometimes I can’t even hear my own sound. But thinking that I’m playing in the section — I had never even cared about that. So I tried to blend into the bass section when preparing this audition. Even though we only have a small bass section — four bass players — I really felt like we’re together, making the same type of sound, using the same stroke. I think that’s really important.
Jason: It’s such a tricky thing. And yet you have this beautiful solo voice. And who knows what the right answer is, because I think in an audition you have to play a little bit more like a soloist on an excerpt, because you are — but that wouldn’t be exactly how you’d play in the bass section. It’s really cool that they asked you to do that and then you were able to adjust.
Managing Nerves and the Audition Day
Jason: How did you manage yourself at the audition? Some people get in the practice room and just play until they go on. Some people put on sunglasses and headphones and listen to the excerpts. You don’t know when you’re going to play — it might be early or late, you might get hungry. How did you deal with that?
SoJung: It took me a long time to figure out, because I remember for my first audition for the Toronto Symphony, I had just no idea what was going on. I didn’t prepare it well — I was just going for it because they had more spots than usual. I was totally blacked out on stage because I didn’t expect how massive the hall was going to be. When you walk inside the hall, it’s completely silent, and you get nervous immediately. My body was already tight, and of course I’m not going to play as I planned.
So I learned while taking auditions as time went on. I try to calm myself down when I pick up my number and figure out what time I’m going to play. Try not to freak out in the practice room or waiting room, because if you start feeling nervous, it’s really hard to calm down.
I think I try to look at the music more than playing the bass, because your body can remember — you have muscle memory. You’ve been practicing that piece so much. But I had a bad habit of not looking at the music. So my teacher always told me, just read the music, try to remember the tempo, just look at the music, and sing before you go into the audition. I tried to do that more, and it worked.
Even if you draw number one or the very last number, as long as you know what you’re going to do in your head, I think that’s the most important thing rather than just going and playing.
And then you’re going to hear all the bass players playing when you’re waiting in the practice room. I feel like it’s not going to help you to practice or play right before the audition hearing all the other bass players.
Jason: It can be very destabilizing. You hear someone doing a different tempo, and you start to question yourself — should I play faster? It’s not going to work. I remember my bass teacher, who was a bassist of the Chicago Symphony, talking about one of his first auditions — he thought it was for the Phoenix Symphony — and in the big warm-up room there was some bass player just standing in the corner playing Heldenleben number nine and messing it up over and over. And it just doesn’t help. You are only in control of what you’ve prepared and what you can bring.
SoJung: Especially when you have to play prelim and semi on the same day, your body is going to feel tired immediately after the prelim sometimes because they take so long. For the ballet audition, it was like a full five-day marathon. For opera and ballet, we had the prelim and semi together, and then I had to play the final on a different day. But they couldn’t even tell us the ballet result before the opera final.
Jason: Really?
SoJung: Yeah. I didn’t know. So I had to play the opera final without knowing the ballet audition result from the day before. I was so worried about the ballet audition, but I still had to play for the opera audition. There was so much going on. But still, I think I was believing in myself about how hard I had prepared and how my muscle memory would carry me. Just trying to believe in myself.
Life in the Orchestra Pit
Jason: There’s a wonderful bass player in the National Symphony named Ira Gold, and he talked about how once you get a full-time position in a professional orchestra, it’s almost like you walk through a door into another universe. So what’s it been like? You worked so hard, you sounded so good in that recording in 2021, and then the work you put in to get here. Congratulations, by the way. What has the experience been like actually being employed in the ballet?
SoJung: It felt awesome, you know. Finally, I have my own apartment — I don’t need to live in the dorm or something. But the best part for me is just I don’t need to try so hard to make a good sound, because our colleagues in the orchestra sound so good. I just need to blend in well, and it just feels so good to play with nice people and a nice sound.
Finishing my second season with the ballet, I realized — I was so nervous because we started with 37 concerts of Nutcracker and we only had one rehearsal. That was my first rehearsal after I got the job. I only got one chance to play Nutcracker, and then the next day was the first concert.
Jason: That’s such an unusual way to come into a full-time job, because generally you’d have four services or four rehearsals. And Nutcracker for people in a ballet orchestra — they pretty much have it memorized; they don’t even look at the music.
SoJung: Yeah. And I was surprised at how many times I had to play this piece in December. But Nutcracker is such a beautiful piece — I was surprised. I never got tired of it. And for ballet, I think we have like a double rehearsal for three days, and then we play the concert more than seven or eight times, unlike symphonies. I used to think I’m not good at playing the same piece over and over because I get tired of it really easily. I was worried I’d have to play a piece 10 times, because it’s a long ballet and at 7:30 PM I’d get kind of sleepy and tired. But somehow I really feel like I’m loving this job.
Playing the same music over and over makes me realize you can learn how to play a piece in a way that I never could before.
Jason: I know what you’re saying. I was in the Milwaukee Ballet, which was a part-time job for seven seasons. Ballet is a little bit more — it’s not like playing a musical, but eight or ten times, that’s a lot. And you start to notice these details. It’s a very interesting experience. I remember doing over a hundred Nutcrackers, and at a certain point I was like, I really know this piece well. But there’s still more to learn. You discover, oh wow, that A flat to C, maybe I’ll try it this way. There’s so much to notice, and there are some superb ballets in the repertoire.
SoJung: Yeah, I think that’s the thing I wanted to say. There are so many details, and you can try out different fingerings or even different sounds in every different concert if you want. I think that’s the best part — getting to know a piece so well that even though you think you know it, there’s still more you can figure out.
Jason: There’s also the interesting thing about ballet — opera and symphony concerts have more breaks, but in ballet it’s often just boom, boom, boom, the pages keep turning. The hardest, most exhausting thing I ever played in my life was at the Milwaukee Ballet — one of those Tchaikovsky programs where they took all the highlights from Tchaikovsky, and it was nothing but fast and loud stuff for three hours. The finale from the Fourth, and there were only two of us in the bass section for that. I have never been so exhausted in my life.
SoJung: I feel like the bass part in the ballet is like a real bass part. You really need a bass sound. There’s so much going on in the flute or violin, but we’re just playing the bass part. That also makes me want to make a good sound, because I want to support the music and the orchestra as a bass player. I’m so far away from the conductor, and the pit is really small. So if you don’t make the right sound, they might not hear us well. I was really trying to project our sound as a bass player.
Closing Thoughts
Jason: Well, congratulations, and it’s so great that you’re here in San Francisco. I’m so glad you ended up in that ensemble — it’s a great orchestra and a great company. And I can’t tell you how glad I am you sat down to chat for the podcast. Anything else you want to get out there?
SoJung: I just want to say this means a lot to me. I was in the States for only about four years before I finally moved up to here.
I was a student, and I was listening to your podcast while I was doing road trips to auditions, hearing all the other bass players’ backstories. But now I’m here, playing in a great orchestra and teaching at the Golden Gate Bass Camp. I think life is good.
Jason: And there’s going to be some bass player listening to your story, somewhere else in the world or getting ready and going to an audition, and that’s the fun of doing this podcast. I’d want to hang out with you and chat about all this anyway — we just get to put it out in the world like this.
SoJung: I hope it’s helpful for any other bass player who is working on things just like I was when I was young!
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