Young pianists find keys to success

Pushing his black-framed glasses up the bridge of his nose, 19-year-old Li Tianyou, a young man with the face of a high school student, began his performance of Concerto No 2 in G minor, Op 16.

It was the first time that Li played the piece by Russian composer Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953) along with a symphony orchestra — the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra — under the baton of conductor Lai Jiajing. His performance sparked a dynamic response from the audience.

"Many pianists would agree that from a technical viewpoint this is the most unremittingly difficult of all the Prokofiev piano concertos. But the young man impressed all of us," Lai said the day after the performance, which was held at the Tianjin Juilliard Concert Hall on Aug 12. She joked that the way Li adjusted his glasses was like a trigger, transforming him into a totally different persona and bringing him into the "zone" of the performance.

Born and raised in Jinan, Shandong province, Li, who learned to play piano at the age of 4, was a pre-college student at the Tianjin Juilliard School and this September, he will begin studying at the Tianjin Conservatory of Music.

"I have played Prokofiev's Concerto No 2 in G minor, Op 16, but I never played the complete piece. I was very nervous when I did rehearsals with the orchestra because I not only played my part, but also listened to other musicians, as well as paying attention to the conductor," says Li, adding that he spent a month practicing the piece. "It allowed me to have a full understanding about how to work with a symphony orchestra and a conductor, which opened my vision."

Li took part in the inaugural Tianjin Juilliard Piano Festival, which was held from July 30 to Aug 13 at the Tianjin school, and he was one of several young students, who got the opportunity to perform with the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra.

On Aug 13, three young piano students, Jiang Qifan, Wei Yinuo and Zhou Pengcheng, performed with the Tianjin Juilliard's affiliated QingXin Ensemble, under the baton of Lai, playing piano concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Star pianist Chen Sa also performed with the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Chen Lin, playing Frederic Chopin's Concerto No 1 in E minor, Op 11, which brought an end to the festival.

"Piano students practice alone most of the time. When they participate in piano competitions, they usually work with symphony orchestras during the final rounds. However, many students don't have the experience of working with symphony orchestras. The goal of the event was to allow piano students to get such rare and fresh experience," says Lai, who was born in 1991 and had her first piano lesson when she was just five years old.

She now serves as an assistant conductor of the China NCPA Orchestra, the resident orchestra of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, and teaches choral singing in the pre-college program at Tianjin Juilliard.

In the festival's first week, Lai and the QingXin Ensemble worked with 36 young students, aged 7 to 17. Lai says that most of the students had no experience of playing with orchestras.

"For some, it was a new adventure and for the others, they had the opportunity to express their own ideas about the interpretations of the music," Lai says.

The two-week festival, which was initiated by Tianjin Juilliard in April and featured recitals, a series of private lessons and masterclasses, opened to applicants of all nationalities above 7 years of age. A total of 28 young artists, 37 junior participants and 14 adjunct participants, took part in the festival, coached by 12 internationally renowned pianists, including Israeli Arie Vardi and Russian Sofya Gulyak.

"Before they launch their professional careers as pianists, young students spend hours practicing and gradually build up their own styles. In the past two weeks, I saw many talented young people come together, attend masterclasses and take private lessons. They got a lot of information, which cannot be obtained by learning on their own. I believe that the experience will be unforgettable in their career," says Wang Xiaohan, head of the piano department of Tianjin Juilliard's pre-college division. He notes that he was very excited that his own teacher, 86-year-old Vardi, came to the festival.

Along with the chair of the piano department at the Juilliard School in New York, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Wang served as co-artistic director of the piano festival.

The festival also opened to the public with one outdoor concert and three indoor concerts, as well as online streaming programs.

"Besides gathering a group of high-level pianists from around the world to provide piano students with an exciting and inspiring educational experience this summer, the festival was also like a musical celebration," says He Wei, CEO and artistic director of the Tianjin Juilliard School.

The school, opened in 2019, is the first overseas campus of the New York-headquartered school and is the first such institution in China that confers a US-accredited music degree.