By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Pianist Chu-Fang Huang, the special guest artist at this weekend’s David D. Dubois Piano Festival and Competition, puts a lot of emphasis on telling a story through music.
That was evident during her recital Saturday night when she talked at length before each piece about the stories and poems that inspired them, and then brought those stories to life in her playing.
Chi Zhang, a 17-year-old from Lawrence, Kansas, won the competition. Asked which of the four on his program was his favorite, he cited Chopin’s Ballade No. 3.
“It’s just so beautiful,” he said. “There are so many beautiful harmonies. It’s like a winding story, a story unfolding, so romantic, so much feeling, a lot of love. There’s everything in it — storminess, happiness. It’s just beautiful.”
Guest artist Chu-Fang Huang speaks with Roger Shen, who won second place in the Dubois competition.
The high school junior topped a field of 26 semifinalists over the weekend. In Saturday’s semifinal round, the field was winnowed to eight finalists, who performed in Kobacker Hall Sunday morning. As winner he was awarded $3,000.
Yu-Lien The, who teaches piano at Bowling Green State University and judged both rounds this weekend, said “I was just amazed” by the competitors. “I was impressed. It was just a really high level. I don’t think I played like that.”
She said she wanted to give every one of the finalists an award.
BGSU faculty Robert Satterlee and Thomas Rosenkranz also judged, and Laura Melton coordinated the event which is sponsored by the David D. Dubois Trust.
Huang said of the finalists: “They don’t sound like under 18 at all.”
The judges were unanimous in selecting the top five with more discussion needed to then rank them, she said.
She said she was “shocked” at the level of talent the Dubois festival draws. She had brought two of her own students with her to compete, one of whom made the finals, and said to expect to see more of her students in future years.
At this level, competitions are “cruel,” she said. If a pianist makes the smallest “goof,” they are marked down and out of the running.
The competition is open to pianists in grades 8 through 12, and attracts talent from around the world.
Also winning awards were: Roger Shen, 17, Northbrook, Illinois, second place ($2,000); Isabelle Lian, 15, Novi, Michigan, third place ($1,000); and John Cao, Arlington Heights, Illinois, and Junhao Wang, Sandy, Utah, honorable mention. The other finalists were Sua Lee, a Korean pianist studying at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan; Zi Ang Yin, a Chinese student living in Philadelphia and studying with Huang; and Gabriel Bruner, Bloomington, Indiana.
The said that she was impressed by Zhang’s maturity, and the vision he brought to a well-selected program that also included work by Beethoven, Debussy and Serge Prokofiev.
Zhang was born in China and moved with his parents, Xin Zhang and Ting Ting Song, to the United States when he was 3. He started playing piano shortly before his sixth birthday because his mother believes “music helps any individual.”
Piano is the main focus of his life. “There’s a lot of aspects that I Iove.” That includes performing and learning the history of the composers of the music he plays. “Music as a whole is so uplifting. It never makes me tired. … You get so many feelings out of it.”
Zhang said he plans to major in piano performance in college looking toward a career that mixes performing and teaching. He already has a little experience teaching – he gave lessons to his younger brother.
After the awards ceremony he approached Huang who talked to students about her impressions of their playing.
During her recital, she had also played a Chopin Ballade, No. 1 in G minor. She explained the poem that inspired the composer and how the plot informed the structure of the piece. Not surprisingly on Sunday that’s the advice she imparted on Zhang about the Ballade he performed: Read the poem.
