Below are excerpts from an interview with Sophie Sze Ki Mok, who has enjoyed a variety of experiences as a conductor for orchestras all over the world. Sophie attended EMF ‘s conducting institute in 2021, and recently began her tenure as Assistant Conductor of the NC Symphony in November 2024.
Read more to learn more about Sophie’s journey!
How did you become introduced to music?
Originally from Hong Kong, Sophie’s introduction to music started at around age 6, with the piano, and then oboe just a few years later. “My mother really encouraged me to learn [musical instruments]. She thinks it’s good for young, young kids to learn music, and that it helps our development.
“I had only been playing [oboe] for a couple of months at the time when a teacher at my school invited me to play in the school orchestra…it was a very tiny school, without many, if any, oboe players. The teacher came to me, and told me, ‘Come join us, we need you.’”
Playing in school orchestras lead to participating in regional district bands and other organized performing groups that became progressively larger in their reach and more competitive to join.
“I really enjoyed doing music, and at one point, I realized I needed to think about what to do in the future, for college. . . I gave it some serious thought and decided to officially go into music full time.”
How did your experience at EMF fit into your saga of education and work in conducting?
Sophie attended EMF’s Conducting Institute in 2021. In just the three and a half years since, she completed a Master’s degree in conducting at the College-Conservatory of Music, earned an Artist Diploma in conducting from the Frost School of Music, and has worked as an Assistant Conductor for both the Asian Youth Orchestra and the Frost Symphony Orchestra in Miami. She has also completed some studies towards a DMA in Conducting at the Frost School of Music, and has also participated in competitions, among other engagements.
“It motivates me to keep working on myself and to keep learning more. I enjoy the process of working with different teachers, and the different orchestras I have worked with…each give you different challenges.”
Sophie studied at EMF just after her first year in her conducting master’s program.
“I may have learned more rep in those five weeks at EMF than in my first year in school. The musicians, the students of the festival, were very experienced and excellent, excellent performers. And when you stand in front of a group of good musicians, the experience is very different. The reaction that they give you, the musical idea that you hear from them, changes you.
“It was helpful that Maestro Schwarz was very focused on [making sure the conducting scholars] had the best experience and learned as much as possible during those five weeks”
Maestro Gerard Schwarz, who also has mentored Sophie in her pursuit of a DMA in conducting, has been an influential teacher for her.
“I was actually in the middle of my doctoral degree when I got the job [with the NC Symphony]. And Maestro Schwarz was very supportive and encouraged me to take the position,” creating flexibility for Sophie to expand her learning and finish the degree at a later time.
How are things going at the NC Symphony?
The Assistant Conductor position at the NC Symphony comes with plenty of responsibilities. These include conducting select concerts, including the Symphony’s education concerts which provide special programming for grades 3-5, and covering performances that otherwise would be conducted by the Music Director.
For the education concerts, “we invite different schools and students to come to the concert hall to hear us perform the program. Between pieces, I will interact with the kids.” These concerts take place at the Symphony’s home in Raleigh, but Sophie and the musicians also travel throughout the state to engage with different schools and educational communities.
Sophie describes the stop and start transitions between conducting the musicians at the podium and turning around to speak with the audience of students as a skill she is learning and improving. “I switch modes from being completely in the music, and then the moment I turn around I need to interact with the younger audience, and I just need to make that switch very fast. And hopefully the more I do it, the more smooth that transition will be.
“I try to give them something to grab onto every time, between each piece, guiding them to ‘try and listen to something like this,’ with an example, and if I can, I involve a little bit of physical movement. I know it’s important to energize them. . . to keep their interest.”
Sophie has been busy with concerts in the new year, which started with the Tchaikovsky Discovers America concert on January 4th. “They’ve put together excerpts of Tchaikovsky’s music, and it includes actors and a storyline that they have [woven] into the music.” She’s also conducted several concerts since. Her next concert, The Music of Motown, will take place February 7-8.
How do you approach the artistry of conducting?
“The most important thing for me is to know the score. It’s my job. And I just have to study and study and study – That’s something that we have to do as a conductor because the better you know the score, the more comfortable you feel on the podium, and the less worry you will feel during the performance. And I think that kind of energy translates to the players, to the orchestra. When they know that you know the score, they also trust you, and then they are more willing and more receptive of what you are trying to communicate. And that’s very important.
“When I stand on the podium, I feel more like I am performing with the orchestra, not like I am leading them. I’m playing with a group of very fine, very good musicians and we try to make beautiful music, and to interact, and also communicate musically. . .I think it’s most important to connect with the musicians in front of you.”
What are some other lessons have you taken away from your experience as a conductor?
“The Asian Youth Orchestra, which is based in Hong Kong, consists of young musicians from all over Asia. So you have people from Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, etc. It’s a big group of very international musicians. And the setting of AYO is very different than other orchestras, particularly professional ones, because in AYO, we have about three weeks of rehearsal time, and then afterwards, we start touring around Asia. And since these are young players, not everybody is experienced in playing in an orchestra. It takes time for them to get to know each other, and to get used to playing together, reacting to the conductor and to be able to play and to sound like an orchestra. It’s usually challenging in the beginning, but by the end of the rehearsal they’re already getting a really good sound.
“When we get to the tour, the fun thing is that we get to play in different halls, which is incredible. Each hall is different, so when you get to a new hall, you have to figure out how to make it sound the best. Some halls are very vibrant. Some halls are very dry, some are huge, and some are tiny, little halls. Which can all make things sound very different because of the balance.
“This is very different from working with a professional orchestra because professional musicians are really experienced, and can sometimes adjust [the sound balance] themselves. So [the AYO tour] was actually a good learning curve for me, because I had to think about different ways of working the hall with the young musicians. [Altogether the tours] really helped me gain my own experience as a conductor.”
Any words of advice for EMF students?
“Try to attend as many events as possible. [Students] will be very busy at EMF, and they should, because that’s the purpose of this festival. But if you can, try to go to everything, because it’s not often you hear so much good music in such a compacted time.”
Click here to read more about Sophie Mok and the NC Symphony.