Plenty of people have played in an orchestra, but not many have conducted one.
Everybody in the Dartmouth community has heard the chimes of the Baker bells, but very few are in charge of making them play.
Anybody can sing, but almost nobody can sing two notes simultaneously.
Let's just say that Peter Yoo '98 is an unusual person.
Director of the Chamber Orchestra, performer in the Glee Club, former singer in the Aires and member of this year's Lodge Crew during freshman orientation, the 21-year-old music major from Woodbury, N.Y., said music has constantly been a part of his life.
"If music blows up, I blow up," he said.
Yoo said he was encouraged at an early age by his parents to take up an instrument.
He finally settled on the cello, and by the time he graduated from high school, he had performed with the New York All-State Orchestra and toured in Southeast Asia with the Long Island Youth Orchestra.
At the College, Yoo said his focus has turned to singing and conducting.
He said Christina Keuchman '97, conductor of last year's Chamber Orchestra, asked him to direct the group after her graduation.
Despite his lack of conducting experience, Yoo jumped at the chance.
"How can you pass up the opportunity to conduct an orchestra?" he said. "That doesn't come around all the time."
To prepare for the experience, Yoo said he took a course in conducting, and he was coached by Chamber Orchestra Adviser Louis Burkot.
Before standing in front of the orchestra, he said he created "an idealized sound image" in his mind of the music he planned on conducting.
He decided to read the scores and hear the music in his head before listening to any recordings.
"That way my image of what the music should sound like isn't distracted by other people's influences," he said.
Even though he has taken many courses in music analysis and theory, Yoo said conducting the Chamber Orchestra has been a challenge.
"You have to take information from your ears and eyes, mix that with information already in your brain, and get that out in gestures with your hands," he explained.
Sarah Macarah '00, who plays the viola in the Chamber Orchestra, said Yoo does a good job balancing hard work and a fun atmosphere at rehearsals.
"He doesn't put a lot of pressure on you, because he realizes that you're in the group because it's fun," she said. "But at the same time, he expects a certain standard from his musicians that we'll play well together."
Macarah said Yoo often explains his musical ideas by using analogies, many of which are humorous. Once, she said Yoo described the way part of a piece should sound by talking about gnomes and then "hopping around like a gnome, with hilarious facial expressions."
"He has an incredibly winning personality which is successful in a lot of ways ... especially getting people to work with him," Music History Professor Bill Summers said. "He's a very positive, outgoing and also a very happy, energetic kind of person."
Yoo's energetic approach to music extends beyond the department. He has integrated his love of the art with topics including medicine and computers.
"He's one of those people who is inherently motivated to try to find out about things," Summers said. "He has an extremely inquiring mind."
Along with completing his pre-medical studies, Yoo said he worked on an independent study last year about the bio-mechanics of kargyraa, a type of Tuvan throat singing.
In kargyraa, vocalists sing more than one pitch at a time, and they can sing exceedingly low notes.
"Anybody who has seen the Tuvan throat singers will inevitably wonder how they do that," Yoo said.
He learned the singers' methods and can even do it himself, although it is "very painful," he said.
Yoo, who calls himself "a low level closet computer nerd," has combined his interest in music and computers by using music notation software to program the Baker bells with the help of Ned Holbrook '00.
In order to program melodies, Yoo said he places notes on a computer screen using music notation software. He and Holbrook update the program a few times per week with melodies requested by people who send messages to the BlitzMail account called "bells."
Along with his musical activities, Yoo is president of the Casque & Gauntlet senior society and gives tours for the admissions office.
He said he is not sure about his plans after he graduates, but he knows music will always be a part of his life.
"Wherever I go, I will be at the very least thinking about music all the time," he said.
