We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kelly Lin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kelly, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Lagom Music Society is a Vancouver based non-profit organization founded by me devoted to revitalizing orchestral music for a contemporary generation of listeners.
Translating to “not too much or too little,” the Swedish word, Lagom, defines the span in which the amount of something is acceptable/adequate. By mediating between relativities of the absolute, Ensemble Lagom endeavors musical expressions that examine a fine balance between mindfulness and moderation.
When I first came back to Vancouver, I realized that there are not much opportunities for young orchestral musicians. I really wanted to creat opportunities for them, by helping young and talented musicians gaining more orchestral experience before they audition in major professional orchestras around the world. In doing so, we contributed to fostering the future generation of musicians, as well as engaging music scene in the community.
Trying to find and gather 40 musicians for a concert is one of the most challenging things, especially under the regulation of local Union. Most young musicians cannot afford a Union membership, and we could not find enough non-Union musicians and have to hire some Union musicians, however, Union musicians are not allowed to perform with non-Union musicians. In the end, we change the first concert into a charitable concert, which allows Union and non-Union musicians to perform together. I think it also serves the vision of my company well, because our main goal is to contribute to the community.
Kelly, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
As a musician, I started with the piano, which required a lot of alone time in the practice room unlike an orchestral instrument, orchestral musicians always get to play in a larger group. When I first got into conducting, I really enjoy the idea of making music with a group of people, and achieving musical idea with just a simple gesture, and producing something that is so captivating as a unity, I really think that the podium is where I should belong.
Lagom Music Society is an orchestra equally comfortable with 20th and 21st century repertoire, Lagom is dedicated to musical programming that reflects a penchant for innovative repertoire choice that is both unconventional yet provocative.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I always believe no matter what happened, there should always be a way to solve the problem. When I first started to ask musicians to join my orchestras, I got a lot of rejections. But I just never give up and never stop trying because of this. In the end I was able to achieve what I wanted to achieve.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Dedication and commitment to details.
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Image Credits
Yu Wei