February 2, 2022 —The residents of Barclay Friends are in for a real treat in the coming months! Chanin Jung, a native of Jinju, South Korea, and a graduate student at West Chester University, will be a musician in residence while she is attending graduate school in the USA. Chanin picked up the violin at the age of 10 and joined the Jinju Youth Orchestra several years later. After several years with the orchestra, she improved her violin skills enough to become the orchestra’s concert master.
Chanin attended The University of Sungshin where she earned a bachelor’s degree in instrumental music (violin). Like many artists Chanin struggled at first to master the violin. She tells a funny story about her journey from beginner to concert master. It seems that when she auditioned for the Jinju Youth Orchestra, her skill in violin was not fully developed. The head of the orchestra encouraged her to audition but suggested she play something that few people had ever heard — she chose French composer JPJ Rode’s Violin Concerto for its obscurity – to protect her from the criticism she may have suffered by playing a too-familiar piece.
During college Chanin did a student exchange program in Budapest, Hungary for a year, fueling her interests in pursuing further travel and a deeper understanding of music theory, which brought her here to Barclay Friends. As a student in residence at Barclay Friends she will play some of her favorite pieces (Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major) music and engage in other arts-related projects for the residents. A member of the board of Barclay Friends donated a bicycle that Chanin will use to commute between her home at Barclay Friends to the West Chester University campus.
Back in Korea, Chanin’s 99-year-old paternal grandmother lives with her and her family, so Chanin has a good deal of experience playing music for older adults.