Meet Alice Hong

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alice Hong. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Alice, thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.
Imposter Syndrome is actually the story of my life, and I battle it daily! There’s always a voice in my head spinning countless “what if’s”, and I’m all too familiar with that prickly feeling that translates to “I’m afraid that I’m not good enough”. While I haven’t exactly overcome this feeling, I appreciate the opportunities in my life that push me to do something anyway, despite instincts telling me that the risk is too high. Finding the joy and the why in doing something always helps in making a daunting task more about the task itself, and less about ego. I’m so grateful for all of the great experiences I’ve had when I ignored my Imposter Syndrome!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’m a violinist and composer currently based in Atlanta, GA! Atlanta is my hometown (or more specifically, Marietta), and I’m super lucky to have musical adventures that have taken me around the world. You can often see me onstage at the Atlanta Symphony, and next year you can hear some of my music performed by the Georgia Tech Symphony in November! I’m also sometimes a photographer and an actor.

What I’m most excited about at the moment is that in January 2023, I became a small business owner by founding Luxardo Entertainment Group. Luxardo Entertainment Group produces immersive concert experiences by marrying live music with another sensory element. We also provide a roster of amazing musicians that hail from esteemed ensembles – such as the Atlanta Symphony, Houston Symphony, Toronto Symphony and more – that you can hire for your own events!

Luxardo Entertainment was created through my dream of bringing classical music to a wider audience. A few years ago, I was asked how we as classical musicians were going to keep classical music alive generation after generation. This question burned in my mind ever since, and I knew there were many ways to make classical music accessible, relatable and fun. Through Luxardo Entertainment, I’m able to create more experiences that bring people together to enjoy live music performed by classical musicians. Atlanta is filled with top-notch musicians, and these concerts also provide a way to showcase these amazing talents!

Luxardo Entertainment Group’s concerts not only showcase classical music, but we also really love mixing genres into the program. For example, we have an upcoming concert on August 18 called White Canvas Concerts: Throwback to the 90s & 2000s. A string quartet will perform Britney Spears, Linkin Park, Radiohead, Max Richter, Philip Glass and more. Did you ever think you’d hear Philip Glass and Britney Spears in the same concert?? It’s really cool to see how different music that came from the same time period can be – and also in some ways similar!

If you’re free August 18 evening, head over to Trolley Barn on Edgewood Avenue and experience this immersive concert! You can get tickets at experienceluxardo.com and we’d love to see you there. Drink tickets are also available thanks to sponsors like Paulk Vineyards!
You can use the code BOLDJOURNEY for a discount on your ticket purchase!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back, having positivity, compartmentalizing and the drive to work hard are what got me furthest. Being positive is more than just a mindset – it really influences what happens next in the journey to success.

Whenever I’ve chosen to stay positive when the going gets tough, there’s always an a-ha moment that follows shortly after, a moment that proves why staying positive was the right choice. It keeps your head in the game and away from giving up, it boosts confidence and faith in yourself, and it can influence others around you to feel positive as well.

Compartmentalizing has also been extremely important when it comes to the wide-ranging lifestyle I lead. In any given day, I can jump from being an orchestral musician playing classical music to a quartet musician playing a setlist of all-Beyonce songs, to jumping behind a camera to do a headshot photo session, and then into a private lesson with a violin student. Then in the evening when the day is done, I set myself up in front of a computer and do some work on a composition I’m working on before heading to bed. Being able to flip the switch going into one thing to another has helped me keep my sanity! Being able to not feel everything and think about everything all at once makes life not only manageable, but it’s like having multiple fun adventures and challenges in a day.

Lastly, hard work is hard work. It will always pay off, even if it doesn’t pay off the exact moment you think it will. During the pandemic, I made dozens of YouTube videos playing random songs and classical pieces, such as “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You” from “Mulan”. It helped me stay creative and busy while also connected with friends I collaborated with on these videos, so they were super fun to do! But they didn’t exactly lead anywhere. The channel didn’t get to 1,000 subscribers, and the videos got some views but not tons. However, those videos are the reason why I was invited to live in a film bubble by a casting director during the pandemic to film Netflix’s “Red Notice”, starring Gal Gadot, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Ryan Reynolds! That was one of the most fun and surreal experiences of my life. If you watch the movie, I’m the masked violinist at the masquerade ball.

If you want to check out our YouTube channel, go to https://www.youtube.com/@experienceluxardo!

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
One of the most fun things about Luxardo Entertainment Group is that the collaborative possibilities are endless. We would love to collaborate with fellow musicians, artists, chefs, bakeries, designers, small business owners, large corporations, and more to create unique, immersive events. These events can help highlight a brand or a product – for example, we could collaborate with a designer on a fashion show, performing live music curated to the theme of the collection. Or we could partner with a chocolatier and create a chocolate box set, to be enjoyed during a curated concert that tells the story of each piece chocolate. Our White Canvas Concerts series marries projection art and live music – and we ask the audience to wear white to create the canvas for the projection art!

If you’re reading this and have some ideas for collaborations, please reach out to info@experienceluxardo.com! We’d LOVE to hear from you and work together! Alternatively, if you’re looking for musicians for your existing event, please email us as well. We will put together the perfect ensemble for your event.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Stuart Lowe Photography

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