In which we discover the violin

A lady with a warm smile came up to me during the intermission and delivered the best compliment I’ve ever gotten after a performance: “You’re the extension of your violin...”

Thank you all for coming to my recital; 
nothing brings me greater joy than meeting new friends+ reconnect with familiar shining eyes through music.

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Big shout out to the lucky ones in the audience who listened to the entire Bach d minor partita (plus chaconne) for the first time! 
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感謝大家來我的音樂會！
除了學術研究、我非常喜歡演奏。
我喜歡站在音樂廳舞台上當小提琴芭比、享受登台前腎上腺素飆升的興奮感；也喜歡在小沙龍音樂會穿插樂曲解說、近距離和觀眾互動。

整晚我得到最美好的讚美來自一位優雅的太太，她說我的人是我的小提琴的延伸—
我不太知道怎麼把這句話確切的翻譯成中文，但我想這就是習武之人所說的『人琴合一』吧🙋🏻‍♀️🎻顆顆

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Ysaÿe sonata for two violins

Had a blast performing Ysaÿe duo sonata alongside an old friend/amazing artist Zenas Hsu on behalf of the Phoenix orchestra 💁🏻‍♀️💁🏻‍♂️The moon was full and bright, so was our sound!

YOU ARE INVITED!

Boston friends! 
Have you ever wonder what musicians do, standing in between the composer and the audience? 

It is my great honor to be invited by the New England Association of Chinese Professionals and my dear Boston mama Cathy Chan, to give a mini lecture-performance "To be or not to be: Musician's role in Music-making"at the 41th annual gathering. 

I will be joined by pianist Chi-Wei Lo (who's also giving a mini talk on "Improvisation" in that afternoon) and together we will play Taiwanese and Japanese folk tunes, 望春風 and 紅蜻蜓 赤とんぼ. 

Time: SUNDAY。11/4。3:30PM
Location: First Church in Boston 
(66 Marlborough St Boston, MA 02116)

Event detail:
https://www.facebook.com/events/201039064004231/

To Register: 
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/36503398648

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Source: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/36503398648

We had a blast!

I had a great time performing Prokofiev Sonata for two violins at Amy Galluzzo's faculty recital at New England Conservatory earlier in this month!

Get ready for some Prokofiev duo!

Beyond excited to be joining Amy at her violin faculty recital here at the New England Conservatory playing Prokofiev Sonata for two violins!

In this recital miss Galluzzo will also perform two solo caprices by her Quartet partner Korine Fujiwara, and works by Schubert and Mozart with pianist Xiaopei Xu.

March 17th, 8pm at Williams Hall. Bring all your friends!

Event details : https://www.facebook.com/events/930949843720367/?ti=icl

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Source: https://www.facebook.com/violinjeanius/pho...

What a happy birthday :)

What a blast! 
First time celebrating my birthday with family in Taiwan ever since high school!

I had a fabulous day teaching three amazing kids, rehearsing with orchestra and eating many strawberry cakes 😋 Life sure is sweet and I did have the best birthday one could ask for! Cheers to many more!

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今年的生日在教學與家人的陪伴中渡過，
真的好開心好滿足！

感謝屏東美育音樂/舞蹈/積木/科學/教育機構 三位超活潑超可愛的小朋友在課後演奏生日快樂歌送給我(還有媽媽準備的生日小氣球)、謝謝佳音室內樂團團員在下午準備的驚喜草莓蛋糕(深得我心)，晚上媽媽煮了滿滿一桌菜、在爸媽和姊姊陪伴下吃了我最愛的歐貝拉草莓蛋糕...15歲以來第一次在台灣過生日，伴著百年難得一見的紅色月亮，這特別的日子我在心裡、嘴裡和夢裡都留下了滿滿的甜蜜回憶。

謝謝您們！我真的好咖勳！

》溫馨小提醒《
小朋友的照片皆經由他們的爸爸媽媽同意上傳，嚴禁轉載，謝謝您。

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Ravel Violin Sonata

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Had so much fun exploring, rehearsing and performing Ravel Violin Sonata No. 2 with Chi Wei at Walnut Hill School for the Arts! Really enjoyed our Blues, from the rehearsing process where we seek for all the weird sounds on our instruments so we can compliment each other, to the point where I forgot there's a violin in my hands. And I must say Chiwei did such a phenomenal job creating that laid-back ambience in that movement. Oh what a treat! 
Ravel trio in April, Ravel sonata in August, now what, Ravel duo in November? 
Many thanks to our beloved Dr. Chan and music director Mr. Lynn Change for this amazing opportunity! 

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能跟好朋友一起演奏是多麽棒的事！13年前我跟奇偉在胡桃山音樂營相識，12年過後我們回到同樣的地方玩拉威爾小提琴奏鳴曲。非常感謝攝影師 Benjamin先生，捕捉了我們在台上表演的片刻，看著自己拉琴時多變的樣子真讓我重新認識了自己😎
也請讓我邀請您把目光投向奇偉的演奏服身上，這件蕾絲bling bling是駱媽媽今夏的得意之作，而奇偉在音樂營的「Fashion King」封號可說是當之無愧！
也謝謝張晨幫我們翻譜，有你在後台就像吃了定心丸一樣♥
PC Benjamin Cheung

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What do Musicians do in the Practice Rooms?

"Yo wanna get dinner?"
                             ".....nah I'd better go practice."
Why on earth do musicians spend so much time being alone in a tiny (or not) practice room and how hard it is to draw a sound from that bloody instrument?

A clip from my lecture recital "To be or not to be" back in Taipei a couple of months ago. After sharing with the audience the "role" of performing artists (a combination of interpreter, athlete and actor) , I went on and talked about what musicians do in their practice room all day long.

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As you can see in the photo, as a musician I spend shocking amount of time away from my violin (aka not playing) on a daily basis. Before I lay my fingers on my four-string-babe, I find it necessary to study the score and do a so-called "background check" of the composition (composer, date, what sound he's probably imagining...etc.,) finding the right character has always been one of the top priority in the process of learning a piece of music.

Of course one also has to deposit hours and hours of practicing to make sure that our ears, eyes, brain, heart and our hands talk to each other and hopefully in sync to one another... Sometimes I jokingly point out to my colleagues the resemblance between musician and firefighter: when facing obstacle, instead of walking away from it we charge into the problem. However, one of the biggest lesson I learned during my undergraduate studies at NEC is that one does not get better by trying harder (sad, I know): The importance of practicing efficiently later became my motto, and that we all learn to know ourselves (and our instruments) better in our practice rooms.

Did I not mention this is where we get our confidence on stage?

Flip the page we go

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Secret talent of mine: turning pages for the orchestra/pianist! Come to think of it, page-turning is quite a stressful job, since there are possibly a billion things that could go wrong during the performance: strong wind coming from weird angles, sticky pages, those library copies that are falling apart, orchestral cuts, not to mention the shadow on the stand. Turning pages requires some piano score reading skill and fast muscle reflexes-and of course a page turner can never show their nervousness.

I like turning pages, and I was lucky enough to have turned pages for many great pianists in different venue: for me personally it is such a great way to learn music from a rather peculiar perspective. Somehow listening to the music this way makes me more active as a listener and I tend to become more aware of the relationship among different instruments. And of course I do slightly enjoy the power in my hands, after all the pianist play whatever I do in front of their stands....😎

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