Teddy Kim and Christine Pyo did not move to Idyllwild to start a band.

            They didn’t really start one once they got here, either. They played a song. Then somebody asked them to play for three hours. Then somebody else called. And before long, Vincent’s Choice was everywhere.

            For two people who never particularly pursued the local music scene, the local music scene has pursued them pretty aggressively.

            Kim and Pyo grew up together in Orange County, playing music at the same Korean church in Fullerton. Christine was a classically trained flutist; Teddy was a guitarist and bassist and later spent years playing with bands around Los Angeles.

            In the mid-2000s, Christine left California to pursue a master’s degree in music therapy at NYU. After about a year apart, Teddy followed her east. They eventually married and built a life that took them from New York back to Orange County and then Long Beach.

            Christine’s career moved from inpatient work with children and adolescents into child mental health and, eventually, the corporate healthcare world. Long Beach seemed like it might be home for good.

            Then they found Idyllwild.

            Christine knew about Idyllwild Arts, but hadn’t realized there was an entire town surrounding it. They visited, kept coming back, briefly imagined having a part-time place here, and in 2023 simply moved up the hill.

            “We felt like God led us here for a life refresh,” Christine said, “to pursue what we truly valued.”

            Part of that refresh turned out to be music.

            Soon after arriving, they started asking people what there was to do at night. Someone pointed them toward AudioWild, the now-closed courtyard venue. They performed one song there, and somehow that led to an invitation to hold down a three-hour set at Taryn’s Place.

            Christine remembers physically shaking. Singing in front of a crowd was an entirely different proposition from playing flute.

            But something opened up.

            “I felt like I lost myself in the corporate world,” she said. Moving to Idyllwild allowed her to rediscover her creativity, almost entirely by accident.

            Today Vincent’s Choice — often joined by Luca Jacaruso on keys — can be heard around town at places including Aroma, Middle Ridge, The Peak and Lily’s, with summer appearances at Alpaca and Ferro.

            Their sets move freely between genres and generations. Teddy pays close attention to the rhythm of a room, mapping out a set while leaving enough space to follow the audience wherever it wants to go.

            That adaptability also produced an unexpected spinoff: Teddy-oke.

            After a late-night set at Lily’s, an employee asked to sing a song. Teddy knew it. Then another employee wanted one. Soon there was a list.

            Now Teddy-oke has become its own regular event, with Christine helping singers find the right key and Teddy intuiting his way through whatever song comes at him.

            Even the name Vincent’s Choice comes from an unlikely piece of musical history.

            When Christine was young, a man named Vincent was madly in love with her mother and tried to woo her with mixtapes labeled “Vincent’s Choice.” Christine grew up listening to the cassettes. Years later, she discovered Teddy loved much of the same music. Often the same exact songs. Those old tunes became part of their shared musical language — and now, part of their repertoire.

            Vincent probably never imagined his mixtapes would travel this far. Decades later, some of those same songs are still being passed along, now through a duo that has become a familiar part of Idyllwild’s musical tapestry.