KAPA‘A — Absorbing musical notes is a part of memorization, said Joyce Yang, internationally acclaimed pianist. Yang met Monday with some of Kaua‘i’s aspiring young pianists, teachers and parents following a concert Sunday at the Kaua‘i Community College Performing Arts
KAPA‘A — Absorbing musical notes is a part of memorization, said Joyce Yang, internationally acclaimed pianist.
Yang met Monday with some of Kaua‘i’s aspiring young pianists, teachers and parents following a concert Sunday at the Kaua‘i Community College Performing Arts Center hosted by the Kaua‘i Concert Association.
“We sign a contract with all of our visiting performers to do some educational outreach,” said Dan Spriggs, who along with Joanne Nakashima and Kay Koike of the KCA Education Services Committee, accompanied the New York pianist to the Kapa‘a Middle School choir room.
A large part of KCA’s mission is to provide music education outreach opportunities to Kaua‘i’s students, the KCA website states. KCA’s mission emphasizes educational service to the community and particularly to the schools.
Yang, in answering a question from a parent, said her longest pieces are about 45 minutes in length, and she uses several techniques in her approach to music to help with the memorization process.
“I’m horrendous with sight reading,” Yang said. “I learn by listening, equating pieces of colors and geometry.”
She explained that after finding a piece she likes, the following two weeks are challenging because she has a hard time with sight reading.
“I have a box of crayons on the piano when I learn a piece,” she said. “I look at a lot of artwork and build. Everyone has their own way of making sense of pieces, and I see shapes in all pieces.”
The color and geometry comes into play when she is called on to do a performance, her presentation being guided by what her eyes see when she steps onto the stage.
“In the practice room, I try all the options,” Yang said. “On stage, what I see channels the energy and the resulting presentation.”
Yang said when she performs a piece, the feeling is akin to putting in the final piece of a 10,000-piece puzzle, stepping back and seeing the picture for the first time.
As an exercise, she performed a Lowell Liebermann piece, “Gargoyles,” without informing the audience of its title, inviting their visions and interpretations before revealing the title of the 12-minute solo.
“This is about movement about things that don’t move,” she said in revealing the title. “There are no program notes that accompany this piece.”
It’s about what the music conjurs up in the listener’s mind, she added.
Yang received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2010, one of the most prestigious prizes in classical music, states her website.
She rose to international attention in 2005 when she became the Silver Medalist of the 12th Van Cliburn International Competition.
She played before about 260 people, Sunday, an audience described by KCA as one of the larger audiences for its concerts.
See this week’s Kaua‘i Times, inserted in Sunday’s edition of The Garden Island, for photos and coverage of the concert.
• Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
