Playing for the score

Young Chang

A single pair of hands dictate Robert Schumitzky’s polar-opposite

passions.

When he’s onstage in his tuxedo with his violin, he is delicate

with his bow and makes music that requires more emotion than

aggression.

When he’s on the ice, the same set of hands command a hockey stick

with the single and often violent goal of slamming the puck into the

net.

Elizabeth Schumitzky, his wife, remembers the first time she

witnessed her then-boyfriend’s two personas.

The first concert she went to was at the Orange County Performing

Arts Center. Schumitzky was playing first violin for the Pacific

Symphony Orchestra.

“I was amazed. I had tears in my eyes, I was so moved,” his wife

said.

Then came the first hockey game. He got on the ice, got in a fight

with two guys much bigger than him and rumbled even after the gloves

flew off.

“When he’s playing the violin, he’s the most sensitive, emotional

guy,” she said. “When he played hockey, that all went out the window.

He’s just an animal.”

But the 42-year-old first violinist for Pacific Symphony and

semi-pro hockey player for an elite league team at DisneyICE doesn’t

think there’s such a contrast between the world of athletics and that

of music.

He started playing the violin when he was 7 in St. Louis, Mo. At

about the same age, he started playing hockey in school, learning to

ice skate. Hockey over there is the equivalent to soccer over here.

When he was 11, the Newport Coast resident was accepted into the St.

Louis Conservatory of Music, where he later graduated. He continued

his musical schooling at Juilliard School of Music and joined the

Pacific Symphony in 1986.

But he never neglected the puck. In the early ‘80s, Schumitzky

played for a semi-professional team called the Decatur Storm. He went

fully professional in 1982 as a hockey player for the now-defunct

Continental League in Illinois. In the late ‘90,s he joined a team

put together by the Los Angeles Kings and won international

tournaments with teammates in Hawaii.

“Most people that don’t know me say, ‘Aren’t you afraid of hurting

your hand?’” said Schumitzky, also the associate concertmaster for

Opera Pacific. “God forbid if something were to happen to me that

would stop me from ever playing the violin again. I’d be devastated,

but that’s not a deterrent for me. It’s in my blood.”

If he were for some reason forced to give up one of his loves,

Schumitzky hesitantly says he would have to leave hockey. But he

doesn’t even like fathoming such a situation and rationalizes his

decision with comments about how he’s too old now to seriously

compete in the professional hockey world. That goal was actually

never a serious one, as Schumitzky regularly split his childhood

between violin practice and time on the ice. But the sport that began

as just a fun pastime has continued to serve him in deeper ways.

“I think it’s a tremendous combination that he’s found and very

unusual,” Elizabeth Schumitzky said. “He’s found an outlet. It’s like

he’s two totally different guys.”

The musician said there are more similarities between musicianship

and athleticism than one would expect.

“Any time you play in an orchestra, you can’t be an individual

person. You have to be part of a team, and you have to work together.

It’s the same approach with hockey,” Schumitzky said. “And there’s a

very similar preparation that’s involved. Waiting backstage for a

performance is virtually the same as sitting in a locker room when

you’re getting ready to play a big game.”

Other similarities between hitting the puck and plucking the

strings include the art of constantly trying to improve and do better

next time.

“You never reach the point where you’re satisfied in your

performance,” he said. “You’re constantly striving to always better

your performance.”

Sometimes he has to miss a hockey game for concerts or a symphony

rehearsal for games. He recently opted out of an October hockey

tournament in Las Vegas because Opera Pacific switched the opening

dates for “La Boheme,” coming this fall.

The sacrifices often go both ways.

“But I’d have to say that playing the violin would have to be my

No. 1 love, since this is what I’ve worked so hard for, for so many

years,” he said.