Piano Lessons in New Haven, CT

Instruments: Piano Recorder Keyboard

When did you decide to become a professional musician? Was it a gradual decision or was there a defining moment for you?
I started taking private piano and recorder lessons at a very young age. I also started participating in small and big competitions at a young age. I went to a professional music school when I was in year 10, and proceeded to study in a music college. I started music learning at a very young age, and continued to be mentored in the musical direction, so pursing a career in professional musicianship was a natural and organic decision for me.

Does music run in your family? Tell us a little about your musical family members.
Yes. No one in my family is a professional musician apart from me, but everyone of my family member plays an instrument to a high standard. My mother was an opera major in college, and had a short career before having me and my siblings. My father was in church choirs during school and guitar club during college, and he has a love for Baroque music just like me. My grandmother is an amateur Opera singer who sings regularly with her local music-classroom productions. My older sister played the flute and won several competitions in the flute before she went on to college to study art. My little sister is a media major at college, but minors in music, that of violin performance in particular. My little brother is a young pianist, jazz drummer, violinist, and DJ who wishes to pursue a career in music in the future!

If you weren't a musician what do you think you'd be doing instead?
I would like to be a psychologist, or a music therapist. I have always been very fascinated in the human minds, and people's words, thoughts, behaviors, emotions, actions etc. always get me thinking about the meaning and mechanism behind them. Further education in psychology is still a dream of mine, and I wish to become a music therapist one day in the future (alongside my career in music performance and education) to combine my knowledge in music, performance, education, and the yet to be explored therapeutic works.

What do you think is the hardest thing to master on your instrument?
For the recorder: good sound, and good technique. Many people see recorder as an easy and unserious instrument. It is easy to produce a sound on the recorder, but it is extremely hard and takes a lot of dedication to produce a good sound and clean technique (finger technique, articulations etc.). So, I think the hardest thing to master on the recorder is not merely to make sounds, but to make beautiful and clean sounds. For the piano: precision, and expression. Advanced piano repertoires involves various methods and techniques, and to get them all together precisely takes many hours and years of practice. On top of the extremely tough precisions to handle, piano works have some of the most expressive styles with two hands representing so many different voices.

If you have a Music Degree, what is it in (Performance, Education, Musicology, Theory, Composition, etc) and why did you choose that degree?
Yes, Bachelor of music in performance. I wanted to achieve the highest excellency in my instrumental playing, and I believe a degree in performance would have the highest standard for performance in both entry requirement, assessment requirement, and teaching standard. I also understood that a degree in performance also have heavy emphasis in musicology and educational out reach projects with the opportunity to take classes in composition, so I thought an education in performance would be the most well rounded choice.

If you play more than one instrument, how did you decide to start playing the second? (Or 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc)!
Simply my love for music and different instruments. When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to choose a third instrument (alongside the recorder and piano) so I chose to play the oboe and I can played it in the orchestra. When I was in music college, I was very passionate about contemporary Japanese repertoires, so I bought a shakuhachi and learned it myself, with occasional lessons from professional shakuhachi teachers. Towards the end of my college years, I fell in love with the flute, so I started taking second study Baroque flute one a week with the flute professor in my college. Deciding to start playing a new instrument was always driven by my musical passion, efficiency, and determination to accomplish it alongside my main instruments.

What is your favorite style/genre of music to play and why?
I love early music- Baroque, renaissance, and medieval. Baroque is such a pure genre with so much emotions that can be hear and expressed clearly. I especially adore French Baroque; I think music from the French Baroque period is the most elegant and noble of all. Music from the Renaissance and Medieval period is vastly about working together in a group with other musicians which is what I love. I also like their modal sound that is special to our modern ears that are used to the Western music sounds.

What musical accomplishments are you most proud of?
I am the most proud of my ensemble works with various chamber music groups I've worked with and continue to work with. I enjoy playing solo on stage, but playing with a group of musicians, making music collectively, combining different musical ideas into a final expression is something very magical for me. The love for chamber music is also a big reason why I chose to join a historical performance department in Europe, where the medieval style of musicianship is reenacted.

Why did you choose your primary instrument?
I developed a love for Baroque music when I was in high school, and I succeeded in several early music recorder competitions. With a combination of passion and rewards, I continued to pursue a very special major in the recorder under the historical performance department in the Royal Academy of Music, London.

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