Catch America's Got Talent Alum Daniel Park at the Park Hyatt's China Bar

While his mother dreamed of Julliard, Daniel Park strummed his violin like a rock guitarist. Yes, long before he became an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, was shortlisted on America’s Got Talent, embarked on 300 show per year tours, or started his current two-month residency at the China Bar in Park Hyatt Beijing, Park rebelled against his classical music-inclined parents by using his violin to play rock hits.

The one of a kind troubadour takes a moment out of his busy Beijing residency to tell us more about his unique approach to the violin.

America’s Got Talent wasn’t exactly my dream gig. I was living in Austin, Texas at the time, and knew a friend who was going to try out.  So we met at 5am and the line was already wrapped all the way around the convention center, and by the time I saw a producer for the show, it was noon. I auditioned, played for judges, and did well enough to be invited for the bigger broadcast in Vegas, where the top 100 acts in the country would compete.  

The hardest part about it was this “hurry up and wait" mentality. I’d wait in a back room forever, then get rushed onstage, and get grouped with other male singers. A singer had won the completion the year before, so I think when I was there, there was a push for another type of performer to win. One of the best singers out of all of us was cut from the show entirely. At least they showed me on TV for a few moments. But they really wanted to focus on novelty acts, rather than musicians. And I know other musicians who got way further than me, and afterward, they just go back to what they were doing before.

Other than America’s Got Talent being a recognizable name, it’s not something I focus on too much. It didn’t exactly pump up my career.

Before America’s Got Talent I graduated with an engineering degree. But after working in that field I quickly realized it wasn’t for me. So I decided to pursue my passion for music, to just go for it. It’s not that I wanted to do 300 shows per year, but I wasn’t getting paid much at each gig, so I needed to do as many shows as possible! Thankfully that also gave me the hours I needed to really hone my craft.

I read a book about different work habits and mentalities and learned about how The Beatles just toured constantly when they were young, all over Germany and wherever they could play, just to get their chops up. And I realized if want to be really good at this I needed to play as much as possible.

Although I was inspired while reading about The Beatles, they aren’t a major influence on me. I was actually really into the Dave Matthews Band as a kid, because I had never seen a band with a violin player before. A friend and I used to meet up after school and play along to Dave Matthews songs, and then I learned the guitar parts from my friend. It was a fun way to explore what other kinds of fun sounds a violin could make outside of classical music.

Even when I was in small orchestras when I was young, I’d be strumming my violin after practice. What I wanted was to play guitar, though my parents would only listen to classical music or NPR in the car and I think they dreamed of me being an accomplished musician at Julliard. I'm not sure if they really understand what I do now, but it’s ok, I have fun with it.

I love to interact with the crowd, to see what people look like, and try to guess what they want to hear based on the ages of people in the crowd, then pick other songs based on their enthusiasm, and just try to build up this conversation through the night. I try to never play the same set twice.

I’m trying to learn some Mandarin songs, and I think I have one or two of them down. But hopefully, I won’t need to sing too many Chinese songs to connect with Beijing crowds!  Regardless, I definitely bring something different to the table by bringing both my guitar and violin onstage and mixing that with my singing all together in one show.

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Daniel Park performs nightly at the Park Hyatt Beijing's China Bar. For more information, click here.

Photos: Courtesy of Daniel Park