As a child, he dreamed of becoming a pilot. For hours, he would stand with his father on the lookout platform of the airport in his hometown of Victoria in Canada. “Watching planes come in to land just fascinated me,” Chooi, now 25, recalls. One day, he was given a violin, and from that day forward, he never wanted to stop playing.
1 FIDDLE
This Stradivarius was made in 1717. When I play it, I feel like I’m holding a piece of old art in my hands. I won the loan of it at a competition in Canada four years ago.
2 BOW TIE
I used to keep leaving it at home and having to rush around the city before a concert, looking for a new one! That’s why a bow tie is now the first thing I pack.
3 MUSIC
I’ve got some sonatas by Johann Sebastian Bach with me. I’ll go through them on the plane in preparation for my upcoming concert. For me, it’s a meditative process.