Congratulations to Jung-Hsuan Ko who won the Assistant Principal seat at the Indianapolis symphony, just a couple of weeks after getting her new cello!

Jung-Hsuan was playing on a smaller, Guadagnini model cello.  As many of you know from earlier blog posts, smaller cellos  are something of a hobby horse of mine: they  have tonal richness and projection equal to larger instruments, plus I see no reason why cellists should work harder than they need to.  Although Jung-Hsuan could probably have won the audition playing a shoe box, I do take her achievement as the best possible proof of a couple of things:

• Smaller cellos can easily hold their own in an orchestral setting
• Though new instruments may improve with age, they can (and should) sound great from the start

Here is Jung-Husan’s audition tape.