Arts & Entertainment
Teen Violinist to Play with Manhattan Symphonie, Appear in Music Video
Former Bayside High School student Yut Chia will play gigs across the city this summer as he prepares to audition for college in the fall.
A former Bayside High School student has been hitting all the right notes this summer, landing gigs with the Manhattan Symphonie and a spot in a music video.
Yut Chia, 19, who grew up in Bayside and attended , and , will perform for the first time on Tuesday with the Manhattan Symphonie.
The musician, who was born in Colombia, will make his debut with the 50-piece orchestra at 7:30 p.m. at Gramercy Park’s The Players.
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Chia said he had wanted to play the violin as a boy, but was unable to take up lessons until he reached middle school.
“I started late – not until I was in seventh grade,” he said. “I’d wanted to play since I was six, but my mom couldn’t afford lessons. When I first started, I practiced three hours a day because I had to catch up with everybody who started when they were five years old.”
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Chia, who recently moved to College Point, says he frequently plays in the city’s subway stations, especially Times Square, Union Square and Lexington/59th Street.
The musician caught the attention of Gregory Singer, conductor of the Manhattan Symphonie, who has now offered to give Chia lessons as he prepares to audition this fall for The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and Queens College.
“He’s helping me out to make me a stronger player for college,” Chia said of Singer.
He said he would also play regularly with the Manhattan Symphonie.
Eventually, Chia hopes to play for one of the nation’s philharmonic orchestras.
On July 26, he will perform in a music video with Jamaica’s Damien Escobar, formerly of Nuttin’ But Stringz, whose recent surprise performance with Chia was covered by the Daily News.
Chia said the two violinists would rehearse from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and then shoot the video. But he has not yet been told what they will be playing.
In August, Chia will once again perform with Escobar during a flash mob that will appear at a Manhattan site that the musician would not reveal.
For more information on the violinist, check out his Facebook page.
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