VCU news

By Patrick Kane

Seated at a sleek grand piano, Yixin Wu pauses from a performance of Frédéric Chopin’s Preludes Op. 28. Each of the brief preludes expresses its own sound and emotion.

“What do you think of this second piece?” asks Chun-Chieh Yen, an assistant professor of piano at the National Taiwan Normal University.

Wu says the steady, stoic prelude reminds her of a funeral.

“Then you need to play it heavier,” suggests Yen. “Whatever you imagine, you have to tell a story.”

Wu was among 40 musicians from China, Taiwan and the United States who spent a lyrical week at the VCU Global Summer Institute of Music, held Aug. 2-9 by the Department of Music in the School of the Arts.

“They get to come here for a week to really immerse themselves in a very intensive learning environment,” said Yin Zheng, D.M.A., head of Keyboard Area at VCU and the founder and director of the institute. “Every day, they are taking lessons from different faculty and receiving different feedback.”

From the stage of the W.E. Singleton Center for Performing Arts, Wu and fellow students had the ears of half a dozen expert musicians from around the world during a masterclass. Each session mixed performances with hands-on critiques, suggestions and encouragement.

“Our job is to help them a little bit to express their own ideas and their own personality,” said Henning Vauth, D.M.A., piano professor and keyboard program coordinator at Marshall University. “For me it’s interesting to hear so many different characters, personalities. It’s the same instrument – it’s very mechanical – and yet, everyone plays very, very differently. And you can hear it.”

It’s the same instrument – it’s very mechanical – and yet, everyone plays very, very differently. And you can hear it.

“We were telling [Wu] about being more relaxed, the use of the wrist. That’s just an example that will benefit the quality of the sound,” added Juan Pablo Andrade, D.M.A., assistant professor of piano at the University of Texas-Brownsville. He said each student received individual feedback based on their level of experience, comfort with the material and technical skill.

Yen said students are sometimes shy or timid in the context of performing for an audience.

“They have to start to feel for themselves, to really explore what they are doing to reach out to the audience with their music. I think that’s the most important thing,” he said.

“Because of my personality – I’m not very open, and a little bit shy – the professors told me to express myself. To just do what I want, and be brave,” said Wu. After 20 years of studying the piano and other instruments, she aimed to focus on “how to express myself, my ideas about these pieces.”

“The students are open to all different ways of artistic thinking,” Zheng said. Faculty for the program hailed from Germany, Taiwan, China and Costa Rica.

“It’s a really nice blend of cultures,” she said.

As a 13-year-old student played through Two Rhapsodies, Op. 79 No. 1 & 2 by Johannes Brahms, faculty members switched between speaking English and Chinese to make their points.

“Play your favorite phrase, one that's like eating ice cream,” Yen said. The teen played a segment again.

“Much better!” Yen said.

“I could smell the scent of the vanilla!,” piped up another instructor.

“The goal is first of all to foster an environment of global cultural exchange at VCU. I have that background, so I would like to bring that to VCU Music,” Zheng said. “I think it’s important for other countries to know about VCU Music and I feel the responsibility to help raise the visibility of our program.”

The GSIM went beyond the boundaries of the Monroe Park Campus. The faculty and students performed concerts at several off-campus venues, including the Gottwald Playhouse at Richmond CenterStage, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Grace & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church.

“It’s nice to provide different environment for both performers and the audience. It’s also a way to bring things off-campus in order to reach out to bigger audiences and to have greater impact to Richmond culture,“ Zheng said.

All concerts were free and open to the public. Institute participants also performed at the Singleton Center and the James W. Black Music Center.

“The goal is to involve people in Richmond, because it’s such an eclectic city, it has a lot of cultural possibilities,” Zheng said. Students took part in cultural exchange programs locally, and the institute included a trip to Washington, D.C.

The first year of the program focused solely on piano performance, drawing 13 students. After reaching out to colleagues in Asia “to test the waters,” Zheng realized there was a demand for adding flute and string instruction, expanding to a fuller institute of music this summer.

After experiencing growth this year, Zheng is optimistic about the future of the program.

“I hope to keep expanding,” she said. “Maybe add a few more instruments and even conducting in the near future”

Featured image up top : Chun-Chieh Yen, an assistant professor of piano at the National Taiwan Normal University, works with Yixin Wu during a piano master class held as part of the VCU Global Summer Institute of Music.