Cellist Finds Modeling Pulls at Heartstrings

Until less than a year ago, Karen Yeh was simply a musician. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But the cellist wanted something more.

A native of Long Island, Yeh began studying piano at 6 and took up the cello three years later. She attended the State University of New York (SUNY) Stony Brook’s Pre-College Program, where she received her first chamber music coachings, then earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music degree at Northwestern University under the tutelage of Hans Jorgen Jensen, where her highlights included collaborating with Kaija Saariaho at a concert showcasing the composer’s complete cello works.

She later received a Performer’s Diploma at Indiana University, where she served as Janos Starker’s last assistant and as principal of the cello section in the student symphony before moving on to UCSB, where she studied with Jacob Braun and Jennifer Kloetzel and was the orchestral teaching assistant. Having earned a masters in music from UCSB in 2016, Yeh moved to Los Angeles to launch the next phase of her professional career.

That’s where things began to shift. Along with appearances at the New West Symphony and those in Pasadena and Long Beach, Yeh also has performed in solo and chamber music concerts around town and across the country and beyond. In an ironic twist, she also landed a gig with the SB Symphony right after moving south.

“I was on the sub list for a long time when I was in town, after having reached the finals for the assistant principal position when that was open,” Yeh recalled earlier this week. “I played four rounds of auditions in one day but didn’t get the job. Then they started calling me after I moved to L.A., which is kind of funny.”

Yeh wasn’t free until the symphony’s most recent concerts, when the ensemble accompanied a screening of the film The Red Violin last month, in a pair of performances that were rescheduled from January after the Montecito debris flow closed Highway 101.

In an excellently timed elixir for her pocketbook, she’s also landed regular work in Los Angeles’s myriad studios, playing on soundtracks for movies and TV shows, as well as commercials.

“I can’t speak in specifics about which shows and movies, because I had to sign an NDA,” she said. “But one of them was a major motion picture which was just released with some big stars. I’ve also done a few movie trailers, but I don’t even know what they are for. But I’m really happy with how it’s going. I’m doing just what I want to be doing.”

All that, however, still falls under the category of music, albeit not exclusively classical. Her more recent endeavor was much more of a left turn. Perhaps it was the film and commercial work, or maybe just the proximity to Hollywood and Beverly Hills, but Yeh suddenly found herself working as a model.

“I never thought I’d ever be doing that,” she said with a laugh. “And right now it’s just for fun. But it’s really been great.”

What happened was that a publicity photo shoot to produce a head shot for her music career with a photographer friend from her days in Santa Barbara proved a lot more rewarding than she’d imagined, and she noticed that the two artists had quite a bit of chemistry. Yeh proposed that the pair produce a fashion shoot to see if the magic would last.

“We did a lifestyle shoot in my apartment, which was really fun,” Yeh recalled. Her friend then suggested she join The Gypsy Shack, a.k.a. TGS, a collective of like-minded creatives who collaborate in creating quality content for businesses and themselves, and which also serves as a modeling agency.

“I met a ton of photographers, models, wardrobe stylists, makeup artists, and the whole shebang,” Yeh said. “Ever since, I’ve been doing photo shoots for them for fun and even managed to get published a few times in a magazine.”

An excursion this spring found her putting into practice an idea for a retro ’50s diner shoot that she’d been kicking around for a while. Yeh produced the day’s work at the famous Mel’s Drive-In in Hollywood, yielding a bunch of shots that catch her quirky side.

“It was really amazing and a lot of fun,” she recalled. “I really enjoy expressing myself that way.”

But the bigger surprise was how much the fashion/modeling work has spilled over into her cello playing.

“It’s influenced me on the music side heavily because it feels a lot like performing on stage. You’re pretending to be someone else for an hour or two, putting on a costume, making up a character in your head. That’s what I do in concert, too – try to get into the character of the music, create a scenario in my head. I have to do a lot of pretending. If I’m paying something that’s mournful, for example, I come op with a situation where that’s the mood. If I can’t access something from my own life, I’ll just weave a story in my head.

“It’s really helped me gain confidence in my music making.”

There won’t be any costume changes, exaggerated makeup, or special effects lighting when Yeh returns to Santa Barbara for an afternoon concert kicking off Music at Trinity’s 2018-2019 season this Sunday, August 26, when she’ll collaborate with pianist Bridget Hough, a fellow graduate of UCSB’s Music Department who is now also based in Los Angeles. The pair – whose paths didn’t cross while students at the seaside campus but met when they both appeared as part of an ensemble performing for a UCSB composition Ph.D. candidate doctoral recital two years ago – will play a self-crafted program featuring Schumann’s Traumerei, arranged for Cello and Piano; Beethoven’s Sonata for Cello and Piano No.5, Op.102, No.2; and Rachmaninoff’s Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op.19.

“We wanted to open with something simple and sweet, and I’ve always loved the Schumann,” Yeh explained, adding that the Beethoven Sonata is another favorite she’s been wanting to play since her days as a student here in town. “It has a great piano part, so Bridget was also enthusiastic about learning it.”

Yeh enthusiastically agreed when Hough proposed playing the Rachmaninoff, as the keyboard part is so difficult she’d had trouble finding anyone willing to take it on. “There’s an unevenness in the writing, like it’s a piano concerto with cello, a masterpiece for piano. Fortunately, she’s performed it before, so I was thrilled when she suggested it.”

After the recital in the architectural and acoustic heaven that is Trinity Episcopal Church, Yeh will return to L.A. where some of her recent projects include a fashion photo shoot with her cello, and appearing in a just-filmed music video with a recording artist where she played the cello to a pre-recorded part.

“I’m just so interested in seeing how these worlds of fashion and music collide,” she said. “I love having more than one outlet to make my heart sing.”

(Admission for the 3 pm Music at Trinity concert on Sunday, August 26, is a suggested donation of $10. Call (805) 965-7419 or visit http://trinitysb.ladiocese.org/Music/music-events.html.)