Dreams from my mother
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(This is part 4 of a five-part series on my journey that led me to create a new music festival in Besançon, France.)
I would not be a musician today if it weren’t for my mother or for the experience of exile.
My mother - a small, slight woman of piercing beauty and intelligence - was born of refugee parents who fled China during the civil war in 1949. Growing up impoverished, with little opportunity for education or professional prospect for herself, she spared no energy or money to provide her three children with the best and most open education with our meager resources.
I began learning piano at age 3 in group lessons.
I began learning violin at age 5 with Yo-Yo Ma’s father, Dr. Hsiao-Tsiun Ma.
I danced and performed in theatre from age 8, then starred in a television series for three years.
I learned and read ferociously, fascinated by distant epochs and lands, stories from the Western literary canon.
At age 12, it seemed clear that we needed to leave Taiwan in order to pursue a better education. I started learning English and auditioned successfully for The Juilliard School. My mother packed up large luggages and moved us to the US.
Having to leave everything behind and start in another place made me very aware of everything that I had lost, of all the people who have disappeared from my life. The things that made me a person were no longer there. I had to re-invent myself, to recover all the losses.
This time, it was through the liberal arts curricula in school. I’ll never forget the joy of receiving the first term-paper assignment in middle school: we could literally choose any subject of any interest, do the research, and present our thoughts. What is the “Renaissance”? What is “Christianity”? I could read and research every which way and find my own connection to the unknown!
Studying at public schools and The Juilliard Pre-College at the same time, then pursuing dual degrees at Columbia-Juilliard, Harvard-Juilliard, I continued to re-invent my understanding of music and literature.
A few days ago, I announced that I have created a new music festival, Playing On The Edge. Celebrating musical creativity and the humanities, the festival aims to encourage the public to explore the arts, literature, and the humanities. Please come join us in the concerts and jam sessions - there’s something for everyone!
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For more information about the festival, click here
For information about participating in the festival, click here
For information about supporting the festival, click here
(The website is currently French only. If you need help, please hit reply and write to us!)
