Assistant Concertmaster Yuan-Qing Yu steps up for an unexpected solo turn

Though Yuan-Qing Yu had played some encore and short showpieces by 20th-century violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra assistant concertmaster had never heard of his Violin Concerto in C Major (in the style of Vivaldi).

Thus, it was a double surprise in late March when Cristina Rocca, the CSO’s vice president of artistic administration, reached out and asked if Yu would be willing to serve as a substitute soloist for performances of the work during CSO concerts May 21-23.

Undaunted by the prospect of having to learn the concerto in just two months or so, Yu, who has made four previous solo appearances with the CSO, quickly said yes. And by mid-April, she already had it memorized.

“This concerto, somehow, was never on my radar,” she said. “When Cristina called me, I gave it a listen, and I thought it was so charming. So I was very happy to be asked, and a chance to learn a new piece is always great.”

Yu is filling for violinist Pekka Kuusisto, who also was supposed to serve as guest conductor for the concerts (James Gaffigan has stepped in for that role). Kuusisto has indefinitely suspended his travels to the United States and thus could not appear.

Three of the works that had been originally scheduled still will be performed. In addition to the Kreisler, those selections are: Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite and Anna Clyne’s Sound and Fury (a CSO debut). Clyne was the CSO’s Mead Composer-in-Residence from 2010 to 2015, alongside Mason Bates.

Added to the program is Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 101 in D Major (The Clock), an oft-played work whose nickname comes from the “ticking” rhythm that runs through the Andante second movement.

Although Yu seems unfazed by tackling the Kreisler Concerto on such short notice, she admits to some anxiety. “Sometimes, late at night, I’m lying in bed thinking, ‘Oh, am I going to be ready?” she said with a laugh. “I think those doubts are always there, but then you work a little harder the next day, and you feel a little better.”

Kreisler wrote the 11- to 12-minute concerto in 1927, and for eight years or so, he claimed it had been written by Baroque-era composer Antonio Vivaldi. The violinist-composer recorded it in 1945, and contemporary soloists such as Gil Shaham have released versions of it as well.

Yu called it a “chamber concerto,” meaning that the soloist is more a part of the ensemble and not featured in a stand-out fashion as in the big Romantic-era concertos. “It’s a little different context,” she said. “It’s like a concerto grosso in which you are part of the section, and then you come out to play the solo line.”

A native of Shanghai, China, Yu was appointed to the CSO in 1995, joining the ensemble during its annual summer residency at the Ravinia Festival, which means that her actual 30th anniversary was last year. But she just celebrated the milestone in April during the annual Musicians’ Luncheon hosted by the League of the CSOA to honor new members and those who have achieved 30 years of service. (In addition to Yu, this season’s 30-year honorees were violin Cornelius Chiu, Principal Second Violin Baird Dodge, horn David Griffin and cello Katinka Kleijn.)

“It’s often that we have colleagues who have reached 30 years,” she said. “This started [for me] when I was new in the orchestra. When you’re young, 30 years seems so far away. And then, it went by like that.

“It’s nice for me to reflect. It is a big milestone — not that 10 or 20 years isn’t. But I know that the 30-year mark is a thing at the CSO, so it was a good time for me to remember things and think about what were some of the important experiences and where we go from here. It was nice.”

Yu joined the orchestra under then Music Director Daniel Barenboim as a member of the second violin section, but a just year later, she auditioned and became assistant concertmaster, a position she shares with David Taylor.

Western classical music all but died out in China during the Cultural Revolution, a brutal political crackdown that began in 1966 and continued until the death of Mao Zedong 10 years later. Interest rekindled afterward with the reopening of the Central Conservatory of Beijing in 1978 and other schools; in succeeding decades, the music genre has skyrocketed in popularity with the building of scores of concert halls across the country and millions of youngsters taking violin and piano lessons. “I feel like that greatly shaped my past,” Yu said, “because right around the time the Cultural Revolution ended, there was a resurgence, a welcoming back of Western music, and there was definitely a thirst for that.”

In part because of the Cultural Revolution and the devastating Great Leap Forward (the 1958-62 campaign to transform China from an agrarian into an industrialized society) before it, Yu’s father was never able to fulfill his dreams of being a professional musician, so he put his hopes on his daughter. Around 1977, he purchased a violin from a second-hand shop and began giving her lessons when she was 6 years old. Because he had bought an instrument that was too large for the child, her father had to put a stack of books on a little table so she could rest her arm while trying to support the instrument. Just three years later, she already showed an affinity for the instrument and switched to a different teacher.

During middle school in 1982, she managed to become one of just five violin students accepted to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, one of the two best such schools in China. When she was 17, she won the Chinese Nationwide Violin Competition, a precursor to her participating in a series of international musical contests. A year later, she took second place in the senior division at the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for musicians younger than 22. Fellow prize winners in the junior division were Jennifer Koh and Livia Sohn, who have gone on to notable solo careers.

“At the time, it didn’t seem like such a daunting thing,” she said. “I participated in the national competition, and then I went to the Menuhin Competition. It was just a process that we went through.” She went on to win awards at two other contests, including third prize at the 1993 Marguerite Long–Jacques Thibaud Competition in France.

In 1990, when she was 19, she moved to the United States to study at Southern Methodist University in Dallas on a full scholarship, graduating four years later with an artist’s certificate in violin and master’s degree in music. Three months before she graduated, Yu auditioned for the Houston Symphony and won a position. She joined that orchestra in September. But almost immediately she tried out for the CSO when a position suddenly came open.

She largely disregarded the intense pressure that comes with such processes. “It’s just like any other competition,” she said. “You have one position or one prize you are hoping that you would be the one to get, and at that moment, it’s just you and the number you are assigned to for the audition. We all get a number. I think my number was 51 out of 300 something. You walk on the stage, and you play what they tell you to play. You try to be focused and play as best as you can.”

That simple formula worked for her then, and it’s clearly still working for her now.