美国国家公共电台 NPR Her Violin Stolen, A Prodigy's World Became 'Unstrung'

LAKSHMI SINGH, HOST:

For professional musicians, the instrument on which they play is more than just a tool of the trade. It can also be a muse 1, a partner and a voice. A new book titled "Gone: A Girl, A Violin, A Life Unstrung" shares one artist's story of finding her inspiration 2 only to have it stolen away. We'll let the author take it from here.

MIN KYM: My name's Min Kym, and I play the violin.

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KYM: I started playing at the age of 6 and a half. I won my first competition when I was 11. And, yeah, I'll start it from there.

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KYM: It took me until adulthood 3 to be able to say the word child prodigy 4. Like, when I was a child and people used to sort of, you know, talk about me in that way, I was so mortified 5. I mean, it was just, you know, you just don't want to be. I just wanted to have fun.

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KYM: From a very young age, I was aware that the most important thing as a violinist and as a musician is to find your voice through the right instrument.

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SINGH: And for a professional soloist 6, that means a top shelf violin worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. And for Kym, that meant a Stradivarius. She had saved all of her competition winnings for this purpose. Now she just needed to find the right one.

KYM: The dealer 7 who I was talking to came to my parents' house. I was 21. And he had a double case with him and two violins. And everybody was sort of pointing towards one of the violins which had a incredibly sonorous 8 and powerful sound, everything that as a soloist you would be looking for. So I picked it up and I drew my bow across it, and, yeah, of course, it sounded magnificent.

But it was like I was wearing an incredibly beautiful gown that didn't suit me. And so I put it down, and I picked up the other one. And it was smaller. It had been repaired. It got through the walls, and I could see that. However, when I played that first note - just, oh, my goodness - the vibrations 9 of it. I knew this was my voice.

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KYM: It had an incredible 10 soprano. It was very bell-like. It had this what I like to call space around the notes.

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KYM: You could almost hear (laughter) - this is really going to make me sound like a fruitcake actually, but you could hear an orbit around the note.

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KYM: The real true partnership 11 I felt was with this Strad. And I had my violin for 10 years, and I was still getting to know it. Even after 10 years, it was still showing me new things. It was teaching me new ways of playing.

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KYM: But that was short lived. Unfortunately, it's real life. It isn't a fairytale.

SINGH: What happened next made headlines.

KYM: I remember it like it was just, you know, moments ago. It was a cold November evening. I'd had an asthma 12 attack earlier. So I wasn't feeling very well, and I had a argument with my boyfriend at the time who was going to look after my violin. And there were only two other people in my life that I've ever entrusted 13 my violin. So I was very reluctant not to have it in my possession, but I did agree to let him look after the violin. And one minute it was there, and the next minute it was gone.

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SINGH: While Kym and her boyfriend sat in a train station cafe, three thieves snagged her Stradivarius out from under the table.

KYM: I've relived that moment - I sort of think if this hadn't happened, then that wouldn't have happened. You know, if we hadn't made this decision, if I hadn't made that decision, you know, and I went through it, I went through it with such a fine-toothed comb with the detectives. And he just reminded me that he's a professional. I'm a professional. And they were professional thieves. It's one of those things that I still find so horribly painful to talk about.

I didn't know who I was anymore, and I didn't know what to do with myself. I felt as though I was just sort of a shell of a person. You know, when it's a human relationship, it's something that everybody can relate to and understand. But I think as a violinist, as a musician, as an artist when, you know, the relationship you have with your particular art, it's something that lives inside you. And it's - it has a life of its own. And that's very difficult to explain or describe. And so, you know, after three years, it was recovered. I was on the train, and I - and the phone rang. And it was Detective Rose (ph), and he said, Min, I have good news for you. So I thought, well, he's never said that before.

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KYM: For three years, my spirits were just on the floor. And in that nanosecond, they just completely lifted again, and I felt human again. I felt like me.

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SINGH: Kym wishes her story would have ended with her being reunited with her violin, but unfortunately it didn't. By the time the Stradivarius was found, Kym had already spent the money she received from the insurance claim on a new violin, so she could continue with her career.

KYM: Too much time had passed, so for financial reasons, I wasn't able to buy my violin back. One of the most important things that I learned throughout this whole process is that we have such little control over anything, but one thing that we do have control is how you deal with the next steps forward. Writing actually finding this new voice, it helped unblock my musical life. And, you know, for the first time in seven years or so, I felt hopeful again.

SINGH: That was violinist and author Min Kym. Her book "Gone: A Girl, A Violin, A Life Unstrung" is out now.