It all started with a broken ukulele that had been abandoned in the living room of Daniel Kim’s house.
Although the body of the instrument was split on one side, it was playable. So Kim, who is known by patients at his Vancouver clinic as “the singing dentist,” decided to pick out a few notes to a song that he loved. But it wasn’t long before he discovered an original melody, which he wrote on a few pages of blank music paper.
That melody captured the attention of Salvador Brotons, music director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, who is also an internationally known composer, while visiting the home of Daniel and his wife, “Stella” Hooja Kim.
“The maestro asked me if he could use the melody to write a symphonic piece,” recalled Kim. “That was in April of 2023. A year later he sent us a score for a full symphony orchestra — brass, woodwinds, percussion and strings — based on my melody. It’s a one-movement work — about seven minutes long. What an honor! We can’t wait to hear it.”
If you go
What: Vancouver Symphony Orchestra plays works by Daniel Kim, Xavier Montsalvatge and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
When: 7 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday
Where: Online or in person at Skyview High School Concert Hall, 1300 N.W. 139th St., Vancouver.
Cost: $47 general admission, $15 for students, $20 for livestreamed online
Contact: 360-735-7278 or vancouversymphony.org
Entitled “Dongchimi” — in ancient Korean, “dong” means winter, and “chimi” is kimchi — the music expresses Kim’s longing for his mother and the radish kimchi that she made. He found a poem, “Dongchimi Memory,” by one of his brothers that matches the sentiment of the music perfectly, but the symphonic piece is purely instrumental.
“Dongchimi,” which will receive its world premiere this weekend by the Vancouver Symphony, is probably one of the very few symphonic works ever to be originated by a dentist.
“I love my profession,” said Kim, “and I also love music. I love to sing. Singing makes me relax and feel better.”
Before coming to the United States, Kim served three years as a captain in the military, including at the MASH dental unit in Vietnam. He taught dentistry at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, and moved with his wife and 8-month-old daughter to Vancouver in 1975.
“We moved to the United States because I saw more opportunity and a better life here,” Kim said. “I studied dentistry in Korea and had to pass a rigorous 10-day examination to become licensed as a dentist in the U.S.”
In addition to his dental practice, Kim has invented many precision dental devices and has 30 registered patents. He founded the research, development, and manufacturing company ContacEZ LLC, and his dental instruments are distributed to 49 countries around the world.
Kim has also contributed research articles to 15 American dental journals and periodicals, and wrote an inspirational memoir, “The Way of the Dentist.”
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra will also perform a concerto for harp and orchestra by Spanish composer Xavier Montsalvatge. The performance will feature Cristina Montes Mateo, who has won numerous international competitions and has performed with many orchestras worldwide. Mateo is the principal harpist of the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana and of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. She records regularly with various Hollywood studios.
“Montsalvatge lived in Barcelona and was Brotons’ music teacher,” Mateo said during a Zoom interview. “So there will be special bond when we do this piece.”
Mateo grew up in Seville, Spain, and began studying the harp when she was 9 years old. She has performed Montsalvatge’s “Concerto Capriccio for Harp and Orchestra” many times.
“His harp concerto is an excellent contemporary work” she said. “It explores a lot of interesting sounds. It has three movements and uses some modern techniques like glissandos with the pedals, knocking on the harp, using a metal rod or finger nails to make a harsher sound. The third movement has a melody from Paraguay that is catchy.”
After intermission, the orchestra will play one of the most popular works in the symphonic repertoire, “Scheherazade: Symphonic Suite” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The piece depicts scenes from “The Thousand and One Nights” with highly evocative music. Listeners can easily imagine Sinbad’s ship in the open ocean, a beautiful princess and a handsome prince, a festival in Baghdad, and an exciting battle on the high seas.
“Scheherazade” concludes with the ship crashing into the rocks and splintering in pieces. An epilogue highlighted by the solo violin brings the piece to a calm end with the music drifting into the distance.
