To Kin (Desmond) Siu, music has always been about bringing people together. He started playing violin when he was around eight or nine. His elementary school friends were taking lessons and encouraged him to join them. “It was really a vehicle for me, in grade school, to hang out with friends,” he says. “And looking back at my career, that’s how I’ve made a lot of my friends and a lot of connections is through music.” He completed his undergraduate studies at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. He debated between majoring in environmental science or music, but music ultimately won out. A college injury altered his trajectory. During his senior year, he suffered from an overuse injury and took up conducting since he wasn’t able to play violin. After taking a gap year after he finished up his bachelor’s, he applied for graduate school at Northern Arizona University (NAU), was accepted and has been in the area since 2016.
Since then, Desmond has made quite the name for himself in Arizona. He’s the artistic director and principal conductor at Orchestra Northern Arizona, a part-time violin instructor at NAU and the music director of the Scottsdale Symphonic Orchestra. In his Orchestra Northern Arizona role, he’s responsible for setting the program for the year, bringing in soloists, organizing rehearsals and conducting the orchestra. When he’s curating the program, he strives for variety. “Orchestras are really just 1700s, 1800s cover bands,” he says. “One thing I like to do with my orchestras is balance the things that people know well in classical music with things they’ve never quite maybe experienced as much.” Desmond appreciates the tight-knit community of Northern Arizona.
“In Northern Arizona, I’ve had a better chance of getting to know my audience a little bit more,” he says “I get to talk to some other people that are just happy to be there and happy to get to have a conversation.” He says he enjoys connecting with his students through teaching. “Everything I do in music really comes down to a communal effort,” he says. “Whether it’s for me, whether it’s for someone else, to make sure that the person understands, knows the responsibilities and hopefully along the way, I can inspire them. Whether it’s through music or through playing or finding connections between music and life, to make it more bearable and more fun.” – By Teresa K. Traverse
