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The Sunday Blessings Podcast is hosted by Jay Hildebrandt and features stories of faith, hope, and inspiration. You'll hear extended interviews, musician & artist spotlights, and more. Sunday Blessings can be heard weekly on Sundays from 5am-5pm mountain standard time on Classy 97, Sunny 97, and Classy 97 Lite.
Sharing stories of faith, hope, and inspiration. This is the Sunday Blessings podcast. Welcome to this Sunday Blessings podcast. I'm j Hildebrandt. On today's episode, I bring you an interview I did with famous concert violinist, Jenny Oakes Baker, in November of 2023 as she was preparing to launch a 20 city tour of her Joy to the World Christmas Concerts.
I wanna talk a little about the violin. When and how did you first fall in love with the violin? Well, I started playing when I was 4 years old. And, for as long as I can remember, it's been a huge part of my life. It was also a beautiful part of of how I came to know that god exists and that I am his child and I can reach out, when I need blessings which is particularly, important right now because pulling off a 20 city tour by myself pretty much.
I do have some helpers, but it's all really on my shoulders and, I'm grateful that music has helped me reach out to the Lord and know that he's there and he will bless bless me in difficult situations. My most difficult blessing blessing me. And so it was a huge part of my my testimony that god is there and he loves us and he will answer our prayers. And, I now have taken on these huge tours and it's it's just hard. Planning a tour is hard.
It's so much work. I'm I'm just grateful that, holy father sends little miracles and lots of direction and inspiration to try to pull it off, but it it's just this is the hardest thing I've ever done. Yeah. I'm seeing the Lord there, and I know he's there. And I know I'm I know that I'm supposed to take this message to the world through music, and I'm just doing it, and it's hard.
Yeah. But it's and I'm really excited for the tour to start so I get to mostly just play the violin and sing praises to God through music and not just have to answer emails and try to decide on marketing dollars. So I'll be really excited when the tour begins and I can just praise him through music. Yeah. So what is the message that you wanna get across specifically in in this concert?
Just that we are children of God and that he loves us and Christmas is about Jesus Christ and how grateful we are that he was born and that he died and that we can live again. That's I mean, his we can't leave the savior in the cradle. No. So so just remembering that he's more than a baby. He's more than a sweet just story with wise men and and I love the Christmas story.
It's lovely, but he's more than a baby Jesus. He's resurrected lord. Oh, that's beautiful. Thank you, Jenny. I just want people to remember that and come closer to him through this through this concert.
We've worked really hard to remind people of of the whole purpose of of Christmas. Yeah. If if there are young people who are, you know, like you were at 4 years old or even 14 or whatever when they're they're aspiring to become a concert violinist, maybe like you, what advice would you give them? What does it take to become a violinist, the the caliber to perform like like you and other professional violinists do? Oh, it takes your whole life.
Music is a beautiful thing, and it's it's really remarkable to be a vessel through which beautiful music and the spirit can flow and be able to share God's love with with those around you through music and be that vessel. That is the most extraordinary thing about being a violinist. But to get to that, you have to spend 1,000 and tens and thousands of hours perfecting your craft. So you're not just thinking up bow down bow, what's the next note, where do I play the note, how do I make a good sound, how do I vibrate, how do I make this sparkle instead of sound like a mess. So for decades, I worked on on becoming a a good enough violinist so that at this point, I can just share my testimony and and play with the spirit and not not be thinking about how to play the violin.
So but as far as, like, the nitty gritty, you have to spend as many hours a day practicing as possible. When I was in college, I was practicing 6 to 10 hours a day and, like, intense practicing, not just kind of playing around or playing through things, performing for myself, but intense practicing, you have to have the best teacher that you can find and afford, and you have to work really slowly and carefully and never allow yourself to play fast and messy ever because then you just train yourself to play poorly. Work really really hard. And for me, it's practice and pray and do what's right so that god can bless you, and you can have a beautiful feeling inside as you're working so hard. Yeah.
Yeah. That's neat. So and so for you for the the younger kids, you know, they like I say, the maybe the the the 8 year olds to the teenagers, how many hours a day would you recommend that they practice at that stage in their their violin career? Well, it also, of course, depends on your goals. So if you let's say you wanna go to Juilliard.
What's tricky about Juilliard is there's a lot of players in places like China that all they do every day for their entire day is practice. So, like, 10 to 12 hours a day, even when they're, like, 6 or 7 or 8. So in the mix are these players that have been practicing 10 hours a day for Julliard, so it's tricky. That's not to say that only those who practice 10 hours a day can get into because there is room for players that just have something really special and yet, you know, didn't do 10 hours a day. But you'd still have to be doing 4, 5, 6 hours a day and have that something special to overcome those extra 4, 5 hours a day that people maybe in other places are are are doing.
So it's really tricky to get into Julliard at this point, but not everyone needs to go to Julliard. And so you can still have a successful beautiful life in music and not practice 10 hours a day. But if you, let's say, you wanted to go to kind of the best music school in your state, you probably I'll just tell you what I practice. So when I was 4, I was practicing 30 minutes a day. When I was 9, I was at to an hour and a half to 2 hours a day.
By the time I was in junior high, I was doing 3. In high school, I tried to do 4. I still went to regular school, not public. I didn't go to I didn't have homeschool. So 3 to 4 hours a day in high school with my AP classes and tennis team and Madrigals and trying to be a real real human and not just a practice robot was tricky.
But I worked really hard and I didn't sleep a whole lot, and I didn't do a whole lot of socializing. So 3 to 4 hours a day in high school and then college, 6 to 10. That's kind of the minimum to get into a good music school. So but not everyone needs to go to a music school. There's Right.
There's other things you can do. But to get into a top music school, you need to be probably even more than that because there's it's more competitive even now than it was when I went. So you missed out on, like you mentioned, social life and and and things by doing this a little bit, but I'm sure it's been a waste time. I didn't go hang out. If I go out with friends, we were gonna go out and do something specific, and I was gonna go home and practice.
It wasn't like, what are we gonna do tonight and sit around. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Absolutely. Happily, I by the time I got married and had children, I knew how to play violin, so I didn't have to learn how to play violin.
I could just pretty much practice just to perform and perfect the songs I was about to perform. I wasn't kind of how do I do this by then? And so I'm grateful that by the time I got married and had children, I had a little more time to a lot more time to devote to my children. So I'm super grateful. It also another blessing in my life was it kept me home.
I'm gonna cry again. My goodness. I must be stressed right now, but, it kept me home with my mom and my dad was traveling a lot with work, but my mom was home. And so not going out with friends every weekend or any weeknights, kept me home with her and then she died a couple years. Well, she died my 1st year at Julliard getting my master's, and, I will always be grateful that I was home most weekends with her because that was the only time I had.
Wow. What a blessing that was for you. Yeah. And let me ask you a little bit more as we get into the, oh, the sacred divine nature of of music, how it's it's it makes people feel closer to heaven that it maybe comes from God. I know Handel said that he felt the Messiah came straight from from the Lord.
Oh, it does. Absolutely. Yeah. Expound more, the whole divine nature of inspiring music. Oh, I mean, there's a quote that music is the language of the gods, and I'd I I don't know if that's true, but it sure feels that way, especially, my goodness.
I'm so sorry. Especially when I'm I'm playing really sacred music that is centered on God and the I mean, the power is there. It's I mean, there's beautiful classical music that's completely lovely and inspiring, but there's something truly different about music that's completely connected to the divine in in that it is testifying of Jesus Christ or of God the father and there's a power to that music that is like nothing else and, I'm really grateful that throughout my career I've been able to perform this music in really truly miraculous ways well, miraculous circumstances and and locations and and, yeah. Absolutely. Music comes from God and he cares about music and he makes miracles happen so that music good music can be shared and just the miracles I've seen in my life as I've tried to use my music to bless others and bring them closer to god have been astounding.
I just feel like I've lived a life of miracles and I know that it's because that my life I've I've had music to to be the the vessel through which I share God's love and or that I've been able to be that vessel and and involve music in that, and it's such a blessing. Yeah. It's it's it's so obvious that it it touches you, and it it might it touches other people too. Do you have have, instances where you know that people have come up to you and said, I this really touched me, and thank you so much. You know, it did got me in a more heavenly place.
Does that does that happen frequently from time to time? Or and it's a huge blessing. One of my favorite things is I mean, it's great to have applause when after you perform, and it feels great. And everyone's joining joining together and feeling the same thing and it it just is this rejoicing moment. But even better than applause is when and when I do a sacred program, when I do my redeemer program, I ask for people to not applaud between the new movements because I love that stillness where you can just feel the spirit.
It's not interrupted by applause and sometimes you can hear people sniffing with emotion like tears and I'd much rather hear a little sniffle than an applause. And I I get I get letters all the time for people very often. They'll they'll play my music as their loved ones are passing on to the other side and they're so grateful that my music helped everyone feel a little bit more peace in that in those tender moments. People playing it as they go to work to feel better when something hard happens and they play some of the things I've recorded and it's helped them feel closer to God or given them hope or strength or utilized by people to help them feel closer to God and give them hope and strength in the spirit and it's it's really an honor that I feel like my entertain people. They're to be impactful and leave them feeling changed.
And if I can have music that's not just entertaining but impactful truly in people's lives and where they feel and the closeness they feel to God, I'm super I feel very blessed to be able to have a career of of making a difference in people's lives. And one thing I think people might be interested is what was it like growing up? And you've I know you've been this question a lot with growing up with the Dow Jones who was in the hierarchy of the the leadership of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. I mean, the fact that my father is an apostle of the Lord, I mean, it's extraordinary to be around him and and to have his influence in my life and to feel the spirit that he carries with him. That truly is extraordinary, But I feel like any worthy priesthood holder who people have the privilege of being around can emit that same strength and goodness.
And, I mean, I love to be around our bishop, and I love to be around my husband, and I love to be around the stake president and just righteous men, and some who of whom don't even, of course, have callings in the church, but they're just good and righteous and you could feel their goodness. And so my experience as a daughter of an apostle was probably a little bit similar to the experiences other people have had when their when their fathers or parents have have just been trying to do what's right and live good righteous lives and so the effect on my life was because of his goodness not because of his calling, but of course, there's there's differences. He was always traveling. When we went on vacation, it was to a state conference. It wasn't it wasn't to Hawaii.
But, I mean, it was just it was the goodness of his character that made a difference in my life and still makes a difference in my life. But just being around him, you can feel his goodness and his character and his faith and I'm a better person when I'm around my dad. I I behave myself better and I hope that I mean, my dad's 91. I hope he lives for the another 10 years, but I would imagine he won't live at least he won't live more than 10 more years so I'll I'll live, you know, a good portion of my life without him around and I hope I can continue to try to be the kind of person I wanna be when I'm around him when he's no longer on this earth. So I hope I can be that kind of person where people actually try to be better when they're around me.
I'm not to that point at all but that's my goal is to be the kind of person that my dad is where you just feel good and you know you wanna be better when you're around them. I just wonder if you just share with with us your testimony of Jesus Christ and, of the savior and maybe our music has been involved in that in in some ways. Absolutely. Let me talk a little bit about my program, the redeemer, because it's at the forefront of my mind. It's what I'm working on.
And even as I put together my Christmas tour, I'm also putting together my redeemer tour for 2024 and also 2025. I feel like my entire musical life has led up to this production. And I just feel so blessed to be a part of it. It started out with just my another album, it was just my last album called the redeemer and the lord has just told me that I needed to expand it and make it a full 2 hour production with singers and choir and orchestra and narration and beautiful footage of the savior and that I'm supposed to take it to the world. And I know that me learning how to show produce my Christmas tour is for the Christmas tour, but it's even more so for Redeemer to take it to the world.
And my vision for this production is to bring Christians from all all churches and all all all different Christians from every faith, every church together to help prepare for the second coming. And it's such a powerful production, and I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that he is coming. I know we need to prepare. I know that we need to join together and gospel and share that he he lives and he will help us through our trials.
He will us be better. He will he loves us, and he lives. You've been listening to a Sunday Blessings podcast with concert violinist Jenny Oakes Baker. I'm Jay Hildebrandt. Thanks for listening.
Thanks for listening to the Sunday Blessings podcast. If you enjoy the show, please share, subscribe, and rate the podcast. Sunday Blessings is hosted by Jay Hildebrand, and is a production of Riverbend Media Group. For more information or to contact the show, visit riverbendmediagroup.com.