Pianist Magazine: Getting to Know Weiyin Chen
Meet the classical pianist who also just happens to be a Vogue-featured fashion designer. Taiwanese-American pianist Weiyin Chen is certainly one of a kind. She speaks to Pianist about her love of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas, the influence of Leon Fleisher on her life, and the link between her fashion and pianist careers.
Can you share a little about your musical pedagogy and influences?
My teacher Leon Fleisher had the profoundest influence on my musical and pianistic development. Without him, I wouldn’t be playing the piano today. Richard Goode and Claude Frank each enriched my growth in more ways than I ever imagined.
You have the unique skill and vision of being a fashion designer in addition to a concert pianist. How do these two art forms inform each other and interact?
They have magnified my imagination exponentially, they work synergistically. After my first few designs were created, I began writing my own cadenzas. Accessing the fantastical through designing served as a catalyst for what I was ready to unleash in music.
Pianist Magazine
Meet the classical pianist who also just happens to be a Vogue-featured fashion designer. Taiwanese-American pianist Weiyin Chen is certainly one of a kind. She speaks to Pianist about her love of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas, the influence of Leon Fleisher on her life, and the link between her fashion and pianist careers.
Can you share a little about your musical pedagogy and influences?
My teacher Leon Fleisher had the profoundest influence on my musical and pianistic development. Without him, I wouldn’t be playing the piano today. Richard Goode and Claude Frank each enriched my growth in more ways than I ever imagined.
You have the unique skill and vision of being a fashion designer in addition to a concert pianist. How do these two art forms inform each other and interact?
They have magnified my imagination exponentially, they work synergistically. After my first few designs were created, I began writing my own cadenzas. Accessing the fantastical through designing served as a catalyst for what I was ready to unleash in music.
I see designing as a form of visual/musical composition. Construction, colours, textures, and shapes orchestrate into one unified expressivity, conveyed with style. How I conceive designs is very similar to how I conceptualize scores – design is experienced visually, music is “felt” viscerally. I think this extra dimension of time and rhythm that we can relate to the pulse of our heartbeat is what I find especially powerful in music, it can communicate with our inner most heartstrings that we cannot explain in words.
Read more here.
Photo Credits: Lisa Mazzucco
The Washington Post: NSO’s ‘Wind & Wave’ celebrates the sea, but ignores the tide
This guy right here loves a theme. When orchestras build a night of music around a central idea — be it a topic, a color, an era, a season — it offers listeners a comfy couch of context that allows us to settle in and feel situated. Having a theme also allows us to hear pieces of music in fresh dialogue with one another.
More to the point of this review, sometimes a theme just provides a good enough excuse to invite old friends over for a party, as was the case with the National Symphony Orchestra’s “Wind & Wave” concert on Thursday (repeating Friday and Saturday nights). This sea-and-sky-inspired selection brought together works from Richard Wagner (the overture to “Der fliegende Holländer”), Samuel Barber (“Night Flight”) and Claude Debussy (“La Mer”).
The Washington Post
By Michael Andor Brodeur
The National Symphony Orchestra’s sea-and-sky themed program features violinist Anne Akiko Meyers in a world premiere by Michael Daugherty
This guy right here loves a theme. When orchestras build a night of music around a central idea — be it a topic, a color, an era, a season — it offers listeners a comfy couch of context that allows us to settle in and feel situated. Having a theme also allows us to hear pieces of music in fresh dialogue with one another.
More to the point of this review, sometimes a theme just provides a good enough excuse to invite old friends over for a party, as was the case with the National Symphony Orchestra’s “Wind & Wave” concert on Thursday (repeating Friday and Saturday nights). This sea-and-sky-inspired selection brought together works from Richard Wagner (the overture to “Der fliegende Holländer”), Samuel Barber (“Night Flight”) and Claude Debussy (“La Mer”).
Read more here.
Photo Credits: Jati Lindsay
Strings: Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers Continues Passionate Advocacy of New Music with Recent Concerto Commission Inspired by Amelia Earhart
For a good two decades, Anne Akiko Meyers has made it a hallmark of her artistic mission to expand the literature for her instrument by inviting living composers to write something new—and then championing the results with total commitment. It’s an undertaking not recommended for the risk averse. While playing the mainstream repertoire entails having a tradition to fall back on whenever doubts arise, being the first to introduce a composition to the public can resemble setting out on a tightrope walk without a safety net.
This intrepid attitude makes Meyers an ideal advocate for Michael Daugherty’s new violin concerto, Blue Electra, which is inspired by the legacy of the boldly adventurous aviatrix Amelia Earhart. From November 10–12 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Meyers will give the work its world premiere with the National Symphony Orchestra led by Gianandrea Noseda.
Strings Magazine
By Thomas May
November-December 2022 issue of Strings Magazine
For a good two decades, Anne Akiko Meyers has made it a hallmark of her artistic mission to expand the literature for her instrument by inviting living composers to write something new—and then championing the results with total commitment. It’s an undertaking not recommended for the risk averse. While playing the mainstream repertoire entails having a tradition to fall back on whenever doubts arise, being the first to introduce a composition to the public can resemble setting out on a tightrope walk without a safety net.
This intrepid attitude makes Meyers an ideal advocate for Michael Daugherty’s new violin concerto, Blue Electra, which is inspired by the legacy of the boldly adventurous aviatrix Amelia Earhart. From November 10–12 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Meyers will give the work its world premiere with the National Symphony Orchestra led by Gianandrea Noseda.
Read more here.
Photo Credits: Molina Visuals (Top); Kaupo Kikkas (Cover)
The Philadelphia Inquirer: For up-and-coming musicians, putting in work means starting at the top
Increasingly, young artists like Haochen Zhang, Yuja Wang, Stewart Goodyear, and James Ehnes take on heavy-weight repertoire they are often advised to save for middle age — or older.
Complete Beethoven piano concerto recordings just don’t just arrive out of thin air. But so it may seem in the just-released set — Nos. 1-5— by pianist Haochen Zhang and the Philadelphia Orchestra under principal guest conductor Nathalie Stutzmann.
All five concertos were recorded over three days at the Kimmel Center after only one two-hour rehearsal session.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
By David Patrick Stearns
Increasingly, young artists like Haochen Zhang, Yuja Wang, Stewart Goodyear, and James Ehnes take on heavy-weight repertoire they are often advised to save for middle age — or older.
Complete Beethoven piano concerto recordings just don’t just arrive out of thin air. But so it may seem in the just-released set — Nos. 1-5— by pianist Haochen Zhang and the Philadelphia Orchestra under principal guest conductor Nathalie Stutzmann.
All five concertos were recorded over three days at the Kimmel Center after only one two-hour rehearsal session.
Any project this big would be typically preceded by concert performances or recorded live. But having been planned before lockdown the ambitious recording session left the Philadelphia-based Zhang “shocked and uncertain but also excited. I know how scarce the opportunity is to record with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and not one, but all five of the Beethoven concertos.”
Read more here.
Gramophone: Video of the Day: Video of the Day: Flautist Jennifer Grim plays Julia Wolfe's Oxygen
Oxygen for 12 flutes, multitracked and performed by Jennifer Grim
Flautist Jennifer Grim's latest album Through Broken Time was born out of a desire to raise the voices of underrepresented composers through her time working on the Diversity & Inclusion Committee of the National Flute Association. Each work on the album holds special significance to Jennifer and today's Video of the Day brings an essence of urban modernism, marking the importance of New York in Jennifer's development as an artist.
Oxygen by Julia Wolfe was originally commissioned by the US's National Flute Association as a flute ensemble piece. For the album, Jennifer recorded each of the piece's twelve parts across piccolo, flute, alto and bass flute. Recording over 3 hours of music to cover and layer all the parts, the piece proved to be a mammoth undertaking.
Gramophone
By Hattie Butterworth
Oxygen for 12 flutes, multitracked and performed by Jennifer Grim
Flautist Jennifer Grim's latest album Through Broken Time was born out of a desire to raise the voices of underrepresented composers through her time working on the Diversity & Inclusion Committee of the National Flute Association. Each work on the album holds special significance to Jennifer and today's Video of the Day brings an essence of urban modernism, marking the importance of New York in Jennifer's development as an artist.
Oxygen by Julia Wolfe was originally commissioned by the US's National Flute Association as a flute ensemble piece. For the album, Jennifer recorded each of the piece's twelve parts across piccolo, flute, alto and bass flute. Recording over 3 hours of music to cover and layer all the parts, the piece proved to be a mammoth undertaking.
Read more here.
Meet The Artist: Trey Lee, Cellist
Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in music and who or what have been the most important influences on your musical life and career?
Without a doubt, Pau (Pablo) Casals has been a major inspiration for multiple reasons. His playing has always sounded like someone singing and speaking at the same time, which is what I am constantly trying to achieve in my own playing; I find that a musician who can do both has a much greater ability to keep a listener’s attention. Much is also said about his interpretations being irresistibly astute. Whether or not you agree with his ideas, much of this comes down to his courage to play everything with total commitment.
Meet The Artist
The Cross-Eyed Pianist
Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in music and who or what have been the most important influences on your musical life and career?
Without a doubt, Pau (Pablo) Casals has been a major inspiration for multiple reasons. His playing has always sounded like someone singing and speaking at the same time, which is what I am constantly trying to achieve in my own playing; I find that a musician who can do both has a much greater ability to keep a listener’s attention. Much is also said about his interpretations being irresistibly astute. Whether or not you agree with his ideas, much of this comes down to his courage to play everything with total commitment. Why courage? I think it’s because as artists, we are terrified that once we have made a musical decision that can reveal the essence of who we are, we will be judged by it forever (particularly so on a recording). However, Casals’s significance beyond his solo career is what has continued to inspire me over the years. While concertizing as the foremost cello soloist of his time, he also undertook a number of endeavours that have continued to influence the world of music.
Read more here.
Calgary Herald: Young global pianists to compete at Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary
In 1992, pianist Jon Kimura Parker sat on the first competition jury of the Honens International Piano Competition. He was 33 at the time. It was a relatively young age to sit on a jury, particularly given the fact that the oldest competitor that year was 30. “I remember feeling quite intimidated to be on that jury at such a young age,” says Parker, in an interview from his office at Rice University in Houston, where he has been a professor for 21 years. “So it was a big deal for me.”
Calgary Herald
By Eric Volmers
In 1992, pianist Jon Kimura Parker sat on the first competition jury of the Honens International Piano Competition. He was 33 at the time. It was a relatively young age to sit on a jury, particularly given the fact that the oldest competitor that year was 30. “I remember feeling quite intimidated to be on that jury at such a young age,” says Parker, in an interview from his office at Rice University in Houston, where he has been a professor for 21 years. “So it was a big deal for me.”
Among the many memorable moments for Parker was meeting Esther Honens, the philanthropist and amateur pianist who was determined to bring an international music festival to Calgary. She had made a gift of $5 million to endow The Esther Honens International Piano Competition Foundation and the inaugural Honens Competition took place the following year. She was 89.
Read more here.
Photo Credit: Tara McMullen
The Arts Desk: Dragonflies, harmoniums and folded paper
Two discs of music by American contemporary composer Andy Akiho have caught my ear in recent months. Born in 1979, his biography states that “he spent most of his 20s playing steel pan by ear in Trinidad and began composing at 28,” the physicality and theatricality involved in playing steel pans an essential element of Akiho’s music. Have a look at “Pillar IV” from the vast percussion piece Seven Pillars on YouTube; watching three members of Brooklyn’s Sandbox Percussion in action (look out for the wine bottles) is absorbing.
The Arts Desk
By Graham Rickson
Two discs of music by American contemporary composer Andy Akiho have caught my ear in recent months. Born in 1979, his biography states that “he spent most of his 20s playing steel pan by ear in Trinidad and began composing at 28,” the physicality and theatricality involved in playing steel pans an essential element of Akiho’s music. Have a look at “Pillar IV” from the vast percussion piece Seven Pillars on YouTube; watching three members of Brooklyn’s Sandbox Percussion in action (look out for the wine bottles) is absorbing. Seven Pillars is a huge, eleven-movement opus, written for Sandbox between 2018 and 2019, and described by one of the group as “the culminating project of our first decade as an ensemble.” “Pillar IV”, was conceived first as a standalone work, Akiho later adding six more quartet movements and interspersing them with solo sections, each one introducing a new instrument that becomes part of the ensemble.
Read more here.
Gramophone: Video of the Day: Sandbox Percussion & Matt McBane
Sandbox Percussion & Matt McBane perform 'Groundswell' from their latest album 'Bathymetry', released on November 4, which draws on various strains of classical minimalism and modern electronic music production
Grammy-nominated percussion quartet Sandbox Percussion’s latest collaboration with composer Matt McBane introduces the world of analog synthesizer through their album, Bathymetry, released on 4 November. It draws on various strains of classical minimalism and modern electronic music production, taking influence the world of YouTube ASMR(autonomous sensory meridian response) and ambient modular synth.
Gramophone
Sandbox Percussion & Matt McBane perform 'Groundswell' from their latest album 'Bathymetry', released on November 4, which draws on various strains of classical minimalism and modern electronic music production
Grammy-nominated percussion quartet Sandbox Percussion’s latest collaboration with composer Matt McBane introduces the world of analog synthesizer through their album, Bathymetry, released on 4 November. It draws on various strains of classical minimalism and modern electronic music production, taking influence the world of YouTube ASMR(autonomous sensory meridian response) and ambient modular synth.
An initial single ‘Groundswell’ is available to watch below, scored for two drum sets (panned left and right), Moog analog synthesizer, vibraphone, and tam-tam. Over the track’s 7 minutes, according to the artists ‘two big waves of sound are formed as layers of interlocking patterns of cycling polymeters build up and then recede in an ecstatic meditation’.
Read more here.
The Columbian: Vancouver Symphony Orchestra set for 44th season
Two American concertos featuring pianist Michelle Cann will kick off the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s 44th season this weekend at the Skyview Concert Hall.
The Columbian
By James Bash
Pianist Cann featured; conductor Brotons returns for 32nd year.
Two American concertos featuring pianist Michelle Cann will kick off the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s 44th season this weekend at the Skyview Concert Hall.
Read more here.