Ray Choi, autoharp champion, is living his dream

Everyone has dreams but not everyone achieves them.

Ray Choi has.

Choi is one of the world’s top autoharp players, and he demonstrated it at the 2017 Mountain Laurel Autoharp Championship, according to his peers.

He has spent the past 30 years developing his expertise for the autoharp — a musical instrument consisting of a flat wooden sound box with numerous strings stretched across it, placed horizontally and played with the fingers and a plectrum.

“Without passion I couldn’t do it,” said Choi, who owns Grace Music in Tustin. “Passion made me a success, and it is wonderful. I am a very blessed person.”

During the competition — held in June outside Newport, Penn. — each contestant plays two tunes in the first round and a sequestered panel judges them. The top five go on to a second round, where the contestants play two more tunes. Scores are then tabulated to determine first-, second- and third-place winners.

The top three contestants all win autoharps.

“In some ways Ray’s abilities are rather unique,” said Neal Walters, the contest director of the championship. “He’s got a technique that he calls his tremolo, and it’s very intricate and impressive and contributed to his contest win.”

Choi is the creator of the hummingbird tremolo — a very fast hand technique that only he and some of his students can do.

“He totally deserved to win and really blew everyone away with his style of playing,” said Drew Smith, the competition’s third-place winner.

Choi is not only a champion, but he is an autoharp luthier — or maker — and a teacher, and he considers himself a workaholic.

Smith said Choi’s love for the autoharp shows both in his playing and his crafting.

“He’s got a technique of playing, and I have never seen anyone else do it. He can make a tremolo sound like no one else can,” Smith said.

Smith said it seems to be a complicated style and he can appreciate it when Choi plays his tunes.

“He is quite a force on the scene now. Ray is a pleasure to know, see and hear,” Smith said.

Smith said he used to have a mail order business of autoharp material and Choi would buy from him.

“Then I realized he was making extraordinarily beautiful autoharps,” Smith said. “The craftsmanship in his autoharps is so much more than a lot of autoharp luthiers.”

As for autoharp production, they take two weeks to make, and cost $2,000 to $4,000. Choi said he is one of the top sellers in the U.S.

Choi moved to the U.S. in 1984 and couldn’t go to school so he worked several jobs in order to save up and start his store.

“My dream was to come to America and become a musician,” Choi said.

Walters said where Choi excels is bringing the Korean autoharp community to the American community.

“Ray is a superb role model for the autoharp,” Walters said. “I am pleased with the influence he’s having in bringing autoharp communities together.

“He is a leader and an inspiration.”

Choi also is known as a yodeler.

“I yodel, and I learned that in my village in South Korea,” Choi said. “Only three houses had black and white TVs, and we would gather around, all the kids, and watch ‘Tarzan,’ and listening to him imitate animals is how I started yodeling.”

He wants to incorporate a yodeling workshop into the next autoharp gathering.

The next gathering Choi is attending is Cambria Pickin’ in the Pines which takes place Oct. 17 to 20.

He may also be competing again at the Walnut Valley Festival Sept. 13 to 17 in Winfield, Kan.

Later this year, Choi will launch “Ray Choi’s Autoharp Book.”

He said he also has plans to visit Korea and do autoharp workshops.

“Life is short, but music is beautiful and makes another life,” Choi said.

Grace Music is located at 130 W. Main St. in Tustin. For more information, call (714) 508-3203.

JENNIFER LANE is a contributor to Times Community News.