Festival harmonizes young pianists with orchestras

In the concert hall of Tianjin Juilliard School on Aug 17, young pianists were immersed in a scene of intense focus and excitement. As the musicians tuned their instruments, each took their turn on stage, fingers dancing across the keys. In contrast, the harmonies of the Tianjin Juilliard Festival Orchestra — comprising musicians from the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, Tianjin Symphony Orchestra and the Chinese string quartet QingXin Ensemble — swelled around them.

The hall buzzed with octave scales and piano arpeggios blending to create a rich, collaborative tapestry of music.

Conductor Ken Lam's baton moved with precision, guiding the ensemble through intricate passages. At the same time, the young pianists adjusted their tempo and dynamics in response, learning to synchronize their performances with the ebb and flow of the music.

The experience was both exhilarating and humbling, as the pianists navigated the challenge of balancing their artistry with the collective power of the orchestra, discovering the art of musical dialogue and shared expression.

In its second year, 80 students from 13 countries and regions including China, Japan, the United States and Turkiye, along with 12 faculty members and 115 auditors, gathered at the Tianjin Juilliard School from Aug 4 to Sunday.

Private lessons, master classes, lectures and a diverse range of concerts, including solo recitals, concertos and an outdoor performance, enrich their professional growth while sharing the music with a wider audience.

Applicants could apply to two age categories — young artists ages 16 to 28 and the junior group ages 8 to 15.

"It's amazing to see how young the pianists are but they play these complex music works, which are challenging for any pianist no matter how famous they are," says conductor Lam, who is the director of orchestral studies at the Tianjin Juilliard School and resident conductor of the Tianjin Juilliard Orchestra. "They put in a lot of effort but made it look easy."

The piano occupies a unique position in the orchestra, shifting between a backdrop harmonizer and a central soloist.

"The best pianist has two roles — to lead and to listen," says the conductor. "A pianist can go into a room and practice for hours, but collaborating with an orchestra is also important.

"During the festival, the young pianists were given a lot of rehearsal time. They learned by having real people play with them, not computers. Every musician has his or her ideas and, as a pianist, you must know how to communicate, how to think and how to listen to others," says Lam.

One of the 10 pianists who performed at the closing concert on Sunday is 12-year-old Evelyn Shengxi Yang, who was accepted to the pre-college of Juilliard in New York at age 9.

"I already performed with many orchestras, which opened my ears," Evelyn says. "The reason why the piano is an important instrument is that it wants to communicate and express the way other instruments cannot do. It's a great accomplishment when people say that you perform the piano like a singer or you sound like a flute."

"Collaborating with orchestras allows me to learn more about other people's interpretations. If I stayed in my little world, I wouldn't create as much as I want," she adds.

Led by artistic co-directors pianist Wang Xiaohan, who is a Tianjin Juilliard faculty member and chair of pre-college piano studies in Tianjin, and Yoheved Kaplinsky, the chair of the piano department of the Juilliard School and the artistic director of its pre-college division, the festival invited leading pianists from around the world.

These included Jan Jiracek von Arnim, a professor of piano at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts in Austria, and Claudio Martinez Mehner, a professor of piano at Musikhochschule Basel in Switzerland and the Cologne University of Music and Dance in Germany.

"One of my favorite artists is Yeol Eum Son, who also gave a recital during the festival," says pianist Xu Leyu, 16, who is currently studying in the pre-college program of Tianjin Juilliard School. "I am impressed by her refined artistry, from the technical control to the profound emotion she delivered. I want to become a great pianist like her."

Xu participated in the inaugural Tianjin Juilliard Piano Festival last year, which, she says, widened her repertoire and helped her to gain more depth in the music by sharing it with her peers, learning with professors and collaborating with the orchestra.

Pianist Wang recalls his own limited experiences with orchestras as a teenager and emphasized the importance of these opportunities for young pianists.

"I can still remember my first collaboration with orchestra in 1997 when I was 17. It was a terrible experience because no one told me how to work with an orchestra or taught me how to find and correct my mistakes," recalls Wang, who learned to play piano at age 5 and won several top international music awards, including the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

"Playing with an orchestra exposes pianists to a broader range of textures and timbres. It challenges them to interpret their music in the context of a larger sound palette, enriching their overall understanding and creativity," says Wang. "Interaction with different musicians and conductors helps pianists gain new perspectives and insights into their repertoire, fostering artistic development beyond what is achievable in solitary practice."

Thirty percent of the attendees of this year's festival participated in the event last year, according to Robert Ross, administrative director of the piano festival.

"One of the attractions for people to come back year after year is the stellar faculties that we assemble from around the world, representing all the major conservatories and schools of music. We bring them all to one place," says Ross. "For most of the students that come from the Chinese mainland, they have access to all those teachers in one festival."

Opened in 2019, Tianjin Juilliard School is the first overseas campus of the New York-headquartered Juilliard School, which is also the first such institution in China that confers a US-accredited music degree.

The festival not only supported the participants but also engaged the local community. The concerts, including a free outdoor event, drew thousands of attendees.

As CEO and artistic director of the Tianjin school, He Wei says: "The festival showcases our artistic and educational excellence while fulfilling our social responsibility as a city festival."