She can be defined by one word. Energetic. Her drive is accomplishment. Although she represents younger generation of classic music her input is already enormous. At 20 something years old she holds titles such as Violinist, Marketing Manager for Music and Dance College, President of Young Management NGO, Head of Business Development department at Interconsulting Group.
She entered music industry at the age of 6. Since then she made her way through and already carries her own presence on stage. Her first concert Classic Melody, played on Dec 27, 2012, set grounds for her two consecutive VIP concerts Best of Classics in 2013 and 2014 held in Singapore and Hong Kong.
In one of your interviews you said that life is about choices. On the contrary I heard path of violinist was the choice that your parents did.
I wasn’t into music at first. I was attuned to it. Therefore I never thought that my parents ever did a bad choice for me. Still life for me is about choices we make. Even the fact that I am here and conversing with you is the choice we have made. When I was a child, I always imagined myself as figure skater. Watching the figure skating competitions on Russian channels made me imagine myself sliding, swaying and swinging on ice.
About the first days at Music and Dance College
The impression was like I entered totally different world that I have never imagined before. My first teacher Amarsanaa was young graduate back then and totally gorgeous woman.
You said you were attuned to music. When was that moment when you totally embraced it?
Competition made me to fall in love with music and made me strong. Looking back at my first years in college, I understood very few. But aspiration made me realize that I have to learn this. As 4th grader I have performed successfully at Chuluun National Competition, this boosted my confidence and inspired me to achieve more. This was the moment when I totally embraced the music. As I recall I performed music by Russian composer Kabalevsky. I competed in mid-grade section, although I was in elementary grade. I knew by heart every piece of that composition. Another factor that made me embrace the music was support of my family; my siblings would lower TV sound and mom knocking on my door whenever I wasn’t practicing. At times of discouragement and laziness my mom would always be there to encourage and sharpen me. I believe that success in music industry strongly relies on a trilateral cooperation of family support, mentor and devotion. Kids nowadays have much more opportunities than we had. Our college accepts any one with talent and there is no tuition fee. Devotion and talent is all you need. Support is always there.
This made me think of many talented ones who were discouraged by lack of support.
There are. 36 kids were accepted into violin class in 1992. 18 of us graduated and only 2 of us are pursuing careers as violinists. Others are successful in other fields, but not performing as violinists.
I saw the video of you performing with singer Bold. At that time you were little girl and Minister of Culture greeted you back then.
There is a tradition at our college all the A students perform at the year-end recital. Bold and I were the A student from violin class that year. I was in 2nd grade and Bold was in 8th grade. So we performed at recital together. At that time Minister of Culture was visiting our school and happened to be in the audience. Student Baigal performed without any mistakes. That is how we were trained at our college back in the days.
Singers Serchmaa, Bold, Nomin are all the graduates of violin class. None of them performed as violinists. So my next question is if you ever considered singing career like them?
I like singing. May be after few years I might challenge myself in this field too. It is hard to predict future. So I would say that I might consider it.
We have many skilled musicians. Even thou you and Delgertsetseg are most recognized ones. How do you stand out from the crowd? Why other skilled musicians stay in the shade?
We all know Beyoncé and we know that her back vocalists are as much talented as her. May be they are satisfied with their jobs. Simply put, it is always person’s choice. There are many talented and skilled musicians who are part of orchestra. It might be their wish and choice to be part of a bigger unit. Otherwise everyone would want to be celebrities. As for me I never aimed to be a celebrity. I do what I can do and want to do. I am in this over 20 years and this is what I have to do. May be at times I have bigger ambition to deliver quality music to audience.
What have you gained with music? Do you ever imagined what if I never pursued music?
I try not to blame anything. So I never thought or imagined myself at something else. I cannot say that I would have lived better off without music. I do think whatever I chose to pursue I would have succeeded. Music might be the most exact choice for me. It is not about the person Baigal who is tireless. It is more about environment I grew up that made me wanting to play Beethoven. As a result I have become relentless one. I’d put it this way, there could be a scenario where I wouldn’t be recognized at all if I pursued anything else. From time to time there are moments when I am ashamed of being called violinist. I am not a perfect musician yet. I am still in the learning process.
From my observations, artists or performers are more positive in their attitude.
I can relate it to work they do. Musicians only get frustrated when they lack in their performance, but there is nothing stressful besides that. Artists, performers, actors, anyone in the arts strive to deliver sensation and feeling to their audience. I think that strive makes them positive and resilient. They see the white and pink before noticing the black. I am a terrible optimist. Sometimes I get criticized. I always try to achieve, see the bright side before anything. Relentless is my thing. My mom sometimes nags that I am too calm.
You just mentioned that musicians get frustrated when lacking in the performance. How much time and effort it usually takes for a musician to own and deliver music?
I heard some musicians and singers saying that they got into music industry because they failed at math or science classes. This led to misconception that only kids with lower IQ performance are choosing to be musicians. On the contrary, I believe that even music is a science. Composers, for instance, do as much thinking and research as mathematicians do to solve a problem. As for musicians we are the ones to convey that hard work to the audience. And at times we practice tiny piece for days to understand the essence of the music piece. It will be blunt and unfelt performance if it wasn’t practiced thoroughly. It also depends on the composition itself. There are compositions that only few can master, while some are easily played. Bigger pieces require practice for at least 6 months. Here I want to emphasize, why for instance people would praise doctors for their time spent studying, but are neglecting musicians, who also studied for most of their lives.
I see the reason behind this as lack of proper classic music education at national level.
There are many reasons behind. In Europe classic art has been developing for more than 400-500 years. It is instilled in their daily lifestyle. In this regard, it is a mistake to consider Mongolians as senseless in classic music. On the contrary, we have unique talent and sensibility. We quickly adopted urban lifestyle and classic music has history of less than 100 years in Mongolia. It was brought on our soil in the beginning of 20th century and yet we are competing at world level. We have achieved a lot in a very short time and we should be proud. Our audience is very educated and likes classic music and there are performers who strive to better their skills. Several years ago conductor from European theatre performed at Mongolian State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet. He was totally shocked to see how young the audience was at that time. My only concern here is how we should navigate and manage it further and bring out the talents and skills to the level of foreign competitors. It takes long years and a lot of effort.
Many know that you have to have talent and sense in music to become a musician. But is it possible for a tone-deaf person to become good performer through hard work and practice? Some also say that it is 1% of talent and 99% practice.
Of course there are techniques to train a musician. Good mentor and practice is essential. I think that saying is to encourage students to never give up and succeed in their endeavors. I can’t agree with 1% talent. I don’t think a person without any talent would pursue music career. If one passed the selection and is considered to have talent, then it takes 99% practice.
I want to ask whether it is possible to feel the mood of a musician through his performance.
Yes we can totally say if person is in a good or a bad mood. But here please notice that skilled performer would never give a hint about his feelings. Suppose musician is going through sad phase in life. One just sheds feelings behind curtains and able to perform, for instance, Nevsky’s Polonaise, very cheerful music piece. Younger musicians cannot hide their feelings well and you can see that in their performance.
Violin shape reminds woman body. What does it actually depict?
History of violin dates back to Byzantine times and at that time it was horizontal. Since then the instrument had evolved many times and around 16th century it obtained shape very close to current.
Who do you consider as a good violinist?
One who can perform world best classic pieces with great professionalism is considered as good performer. Then good performer should be able to master any piece of music whether it is big or small and deliver it to the audience.
How would you rate yourself?
This is up to audience. I cannot rate myself yet and I am still in the learning process.
Is there any specific composition you like to play and close to you?
It is a piece by famous conductor, composer J. Chuluun “Two Folk Song Bouillabaisse”. It feels as if thou you are reading poem “My Land” by D. Natsagdorj. From world music I am more inclined to Tchaikovsky pieces.
In which mood you are likely to play?
I have noticed that I play more whenever I am sad or feeling discomfort. Violin helps me to relieve my sadness, as if thou it comforts me. On the contrary when I am happy or cheerful I like to play for others. I never get bored or lazy to play music.
It seems to me as we talk that being a musician is like a blessing. When you can combine what you really strive for and the career. Whereas, there are many who are not happy with their jobs.
True. I am lucky that I can pursue my career with what I really love. But then again, person should create own fate.
I heard that physique, especially hands are important to become a violinist.
There is multiple criteria. For a musician it is important to have long fingers, bigger palm and even the fingertips can be very important. It also very much depends on type of musical instrument. For wind instruments lips, teeth and even the jaw bone structure is important. If one cannot meet these requirements, there is nothing can be done. Being a musician is not just about talent but other factors might have big part.
Many refer to language of music. With this in mind, which music piece makes you really feel the life values?
Meditation by Tchaikovsky is very hard piece, more on a philosophical side. When you listen to it, you can visualize life periods from the beginning through movement and passage till the ending. Life is very fine-tuned melody. But there are many lives that haven’t been tuned at all. I try to tune my life every day. In this sense, if every tone is tuned then life starts to be like a beautiful melody.
If you are to assign color, which color will represent life for you?
I like bright colors. I am into paintings from Impressionist era. May be this will tell more about my color choices. I see life through bright and multiple color spectrums.
You are always among the crowd and always dedicating yourself to people. Surely, there should be times you want to enjoy serenity.
Sometimes I just like to be with myself watching movies, reading books and eating out alone. During which I mostly reflect on myself. It is great time to evaluate where am I and where to head. I enjoy being with people, but sometimes I escape from crowd. May be it is because I get bored of things easily. On the contrary I can be very conservative, I wear long hair for many years, my clothes are conservative and so on.
When do you plan to start a family? Sometimes in our society there is pressure towards women.
My family never pressures me on this matter. Some people do ask me, it could be a priority to have children and plant trees for them. I wonder why would others be so desperate to plan my life for me. Each person has purpose and life goals. I don’t tie myself to the standards of society and never considered myself being late to have children. I will build my family whenever I feel confident, but this doesn’t imply that I am escaping it or thinking of it like some burden. To me it is just rude for others to discuss my life.
You are Doctorate candidate at Institute of Finance and Economy (IFE), President of Young Management NGO, Marketing Manager for Music and Dance College, JCI Member and you manage Chrystal House shop. It is heck of a load for one person, how do you manage these activities?
People close to me also ask same question. I don’t feel burdened at all. At Music and Dance College besides my marketing activities I supervise diploma works for some graduate candidates. My academic background at IFE helps me a lot with my work at College. As of the shop my sibling is managing it. In 2008 I founded the NGO to help and support other young people. We organize Virtuosi Academy awards for best students every year. Also our NGO organized two art galleries to support young artists. I hold position of Head of Business Development at Interconsulting Group. I started my business when I was 18 and it’s been already 10 years since then.
Thank you for your time
She can be defined by one word. Energetic. Her drive is accomplishment. Although she represents younger generation of classic music her input is already enormous. At 20 something years old she holds titles such as Violinist, Marketing Manager for Music and Dance College, President of Young Management NGO, Head of Business Development department at Interconsulting Group.
She entered music industry at the age of 6. Since then she made her way through and already carries her own presence on stage. Her first concert Classic Melody, played on Dec 27, 2012, set grounds for her two consecutive VIP concerts Best of Classics in 2013 and 2014 held in Singapore and Hong Kong.
In one of your interviews you said that life is about choices. On the contrary I heard path of violinist was the choice that your parents did.
I wasn’t into music at first. I was attuned to it. Therefore I never thought that my parents ever did a bad choice for me. Still life for me is about choices we make. Even the fact that I am here and conversing with you is the choice we have made. When I was a child, I always imagined myself as figure skater. Watching the figure skating competitions on Russian channels made me imagine myself sliding, swaying and swinging on ice.
About the first days at Music and Dance College
The impression was like I entered totally different world that I have never imagined before. My first teacher Amarsanaa was young graduate back then and totally gorgeous woman.
You said you were attuned to music. When was that moment when you totally embraced it?
Competition made me to fall in love with music and made me strong. Looking back at my first years in college, I understood very few. But aspiration made me realize that I have to learn this. As 4th grader I have performed successfully at Chuluun National Competition, this boosted my confidence and inspired me to achieve more. This was the moment when I totally embraced the music. As I recall I performed music by Russian composer Kabalevsky. I competed in mid-grade section, although I was in elementary grade. I knew by heart every piece of that composition. Another factor that made me embrace the music was support of my family; my siblings would lower TV sound and mom knocking on my door whenever I wasn’t practicing. At times of discouragement and laziness my mom would always be there to encourage and sharpen me. I believe that success in music industry strongly relies on a trilateral cooperation of family support, mentor and devotion. Kids nowadays have much more opportunities than we had. Our college accepts any one with talent and there is no tuition fee. Devotion and talent is all you need. Support is always there.
This made me think of many talented ones who were discouraged by lack of support.
There are. 36 kids were accepted into violin class in 1992. 18 of us graduated and only 2 of us are pursuing careers as violinists. Others are successful in other fields, but not performing as violinists.
I saw the video of you performing with singer Bold. At that time you were little girl and Minister of Culture greeted you back then.
There is a tradition at our college all the A students perform at the year-end recital. Bold and I were the A student from violin class that year. I was in 2nd grade and Bold was in 8th grade. So we performed at recital together. At that time Minister of Culture was visiting our school and happened to be in the audience. Student Baigal performed without any mistakes. That is how we were trained at our college back in the days.
Singers Serchmaa, Bold, Nomin are all the graduates of violin class. None of them performed as violinists. So my next question is if you ever considered singing career like them?
I like singing. May be after few years I might challenge myself in this field too. It is hard to predict future. So I would say that I might consider it.
We have many skilled musicians. Even thou you and Delgertsetseg are most recognized ones. How do you stand out from the crowd? Why other skilled musicians stay in the shade?
We all know Beyoncé and we know that her back vocalists are as much talented as her. May be they are satisfied with their jobs. Simply put, it is always person’s choice. There are many talented and skilled musicians who are part of orchestra. It might be their wish and choice to be part of a bigger unit. Otherwise everyone would want to be celebrities. As for me I never aimed to be a celebrity. I do what I can do and want to do. I am in this over 20 years and this is what I have to do. May be at times I have bigger ambition to deliver quality music to audience.
What have you gained with music? Do you ever imagined what if I never pursued music?
I try not to blame anything. So I never thought or imagined myself at something else. I cannot say that I would have lived better off without music. I do think whatever I chose to pursue I would have succeeded. Music might be the most exact choice for me. It is not about the person Baigal who is tireless. It is more about environment I grew up that made me wanting to play Beethoven. As a result I have become relentless one. I’d put it this way, there could be a scenario where I wouldn’t be recognized at all if I pursued anything else. From time to time there are moments when I am ashamed of being called violinist. I am not a perfect musician yet. I am still in the learning process.
From my observations, artists or performers are more positive in their attitude.
I can relate it to work they do. Musicians only get frustrated when they lack in their performance, but there is nothing stressful besides that. Artists, performers, actors, anyone in the arts strive to deliver sensation and feeling to their audience. I think that strive makes them positive and resilient. They see the white and pink before noticing the black. I am a terrible optimist. Sometimes I get criticized. I always try to achieve, see the bright side before anything. Relentless is my thing. My mom sometimes nags that I am too calm.
You just mentioned that musicians get frustrated when lacking in the performance. How much time and effort it usually takes for a musician to own and deliver music?
I heard some musicians and singers saying that they got into music industry because they failed at math or science classes. This led to misconception that only kids with lower IQ performance are choosing to be musicians. On the contrary, I believe that even music is a science. Composers, for instance, do as much thinking and research as mathematicians do to solve a problem. As for musicians we are the ones to convey that hard work to the audience. And at times we practice tiny piece for days to understand the essence of the music piece. It will be blunt and unfelt performance if it wasn’t practiced thoroughly. It also depends on the composition itself. There are compositions that only few can master, while some are easily played. Bigger pieces require practice for at least 6 months. Here I want to emphasize, why for instance people would praise doctors for their time spent studying, but are neglecting musicians, who also studied for most of their lives.
I see the reason behind this as lack of proper classic music education at national level.
There are many reasons behind. In Europe classic art has been developing for more than 400-500 years. It is instilled in their daily lifestyle. In this regard, it is a mistake to consider Mongolians as senseless in classic music. On the contrary, we have unique talent and sensibility. We quickly adopted urban lifestyle and classic music has history of less than 100 years in Mongolia. It was brought on our soil in the beginning of 20th century and yet we are competing at world level. We have achieved a lot in a very short time and we should be proud. Our audience is very educated and likes classic music and there are performers who strive to better their skills. Several years ago conductor from European theatre performed at Mongolian State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet. He was totally shocked to see how young the audience was at that time. My only concern here is how we should navigate and manage it further and bring out the talents and skills to the level of foreign competitors. It takes long years and a lot of effort.
Many know that you have to have talent and sense in music to become a musician. But is it possible for a tone-deaf person to become good performer through hard work and practice? Some also say that it is 1% of talent and 99% practice.
Of course there are techniques to train a musician. Good mentor and practice is essential. I think that saying is to encourage students to never give up and succeed in their endeavors. I can’t agree with 1% talent. I don’t think a person without any talent would pursue music career. If one passed the selection and is considered to have talent, then it takes 99% practice.
I want to ask whether it is possible to feel the mood of a musician through his performance.
Yes we can totally say if person is in a good or a bad mood. But here please notice that skilled performer would never give a hint about his feelings. Suppose musician is going through sad phase in life. One just sheds feelings behind curtains and able to perform, for instance, Nevsky’s Polonaise, very cheerful music piece. Younger musicians cannot hide their feelings well and you can see that in their performance.
Violin shape reminds woman body. What does it actually depict?
History of violin dates back to Byzantine times and at that time it was horizontal. Since then the instrument had evolved many times and around 16th century it obtained shape very close to current.
Who do you consider as a good violinist?
One who can perform world best classic pieces with great professionalism is considered as good performer. Then good performer should be able to master any piece of music whether it is big or small and deliver it to the audience.
How would you rate yourself?
This is up to audience. I cannot rate myself yet and I am still in the learning process.
Is there any specific composition you like to play and close to you?
It is a piece by famous conductor, composer J. Chuluun “Two Folk Song Bouillabaisse”. It feels as if thou you are reading poem “My Land” by D. Natsagdorj. From world music I am more inclined to Tchaikovsky pieces.
In which mood you are likely to play?
I have noticed that I play more whenever I am sad or feeling discomfort. Violin helps me to relieve my sadness, as if thou it comforts me. On the contrary when I am happy or cheerful I like to play for others. I never get bored or lazy to play music.
It seems to me as we talk that being a musician is like a blessing. When you can combine what you really strive for and the career. Whereas, there are many who are not happy with their jobs.
True. I am lucky that I can pursue my career with what I really love. But then again, person should create own fate.
I heard that physique, especially hands are important to become a violinist.
There is multiple criteria. For a musician it is important to have long fingers, bigger palm and even the fingertips can be very important. It also very much depends on type of musical instrument. For wind instruments lips, teeth and even the jaw bone structure is important. If one cannot meet these requirements, there is nothing can be done. Being a musician is not just about talent but other factors might have big part.
Many refer to language of music. With this in mind, which music piece makes you really feel the life values?
Meditation by Tchaikovsky is very hard piece, more on a philosophical side. When you listen to it, you can visualize life periods from the beginning through movement and passage till the ending. Life is very fine-tuned melody. But there are many lives that haven’t been tuned at all. I try to tune my life every day. In this sense, if every tone is tuned then life starts to be like a beautiful melody.
If you are to assign color, which color will represent life for you?
I like bright colors. I am into paintings from Impressionist era. May be this will tell more about my color choices. I see life through bright and multiple color spectrums.
You are always among the crowd and always dedicating yourself to people. Surely, there should be times you want to enjoy serenity.
Sometimes I just like to be with myself watching movies, reading books and eating out alone. During which I mostly reflect on myself. It is great time to evaluate where am I and where to head. I enjoy being with people, but sometimes I escape from crowd. May be it is because I get bored of things easily. On the contrary I can be very conservative, I wear long hair for many years, my clothes are conservative and so on.
When do you plan to start a family? Sometimes in our society there is pressure towards women.
My family never pressures me on this matter. Some people do ask me, it could be a priority to have children and plant trees for them. I wonder why would others be so desperate to plan my life for me. Each person has purpose and life goals. I don’t tie myself to the standards of society and never considered myself being late to have children. I will build my family whenever I feel confident, but this doesn’t imply that I am escaping it or thinking of it like some burden. To me it is just rude for others to discuss my life.
You are Doctorate candidate at Institute of Finance and Economy (IFE), President of Young Management NGO, Marketing Manager for Music and Dance College, JCI Member and you manage Chrystal House shop. It is heck of a load for one person, how do you manage these activities?
People close to me also ask same question. I don’t feel burdened at all. At Music and Dance College besides my marketing activities I supervise diploma works for some graduate candidates. My academic background at IFE helps me a lot with my work at College. As of the shop my sibling is managing it. In 2008 I founded the NGO to help and support other young people. We organize Virtuosi Academy awards for best students every year. Also our NGO organized two art galleries to support young artists. I hold position of Head of Business Development at Interconsulting Group. I started my business when I was 18 and it’s been already 10 years since then.
Thank you for your time