To Europe, with love (2016-2020)

After graduating high school, due to family circumstances and financial constraints, I ventured out into the world to work in classical music. Shortly before my high school examinations, my stepfather passed from a three-year illness, leaving the future uncertain. It was up to me to find my own way.

In East Asia we have a high demand for classical music education, and by then I was playing at a pre-professional level. So naturally I went in the direction of music teaching. It was a practical choice. I always took music seriously, but I never thought I'd pursue classical music as a career. But I did, and I did so for the next 9 years, until I moved to Canada. My mother did not support my career choice, but accepted it as a practical solution in those times.

My mother's reaction to my career choice.

I started out as a junior teacher, then attained my performance diplomas and licentiate, and began playing at festivals and competitions in Singapore and Europe. The most memorable works I played during those years was Janacek, which I'll discuss in a separate post. Fazil Say's Black Earth (for prepared piano) was another of my favourites. Played it during a competition, to the horror of the jury, who shuddered at the idea that I was putting my grimy hands on the pristine strings of a very expensive Steinway.

Within a few years, I focussed on intermediate and advanced students, and coaching junior teachers. It was strange to be a young person teaching older students, now I am an older student among younger peers at my university. But I loved to teach, and it came naturally to me.

Back in my rural hometown in China, my great grandfather was a schoolteacher and a calligrapher, until he went to prison for joining the wrong political party during the Chinese Civil War. Chiang Kai-Shek lost and retreated to Taiwan. Long story short - that disrupted my grandfather's education, and he ventured out into the world at a young age, working various jobs including blacksmith, metalworker, businessman, electrician, motorcycle cab driver etc. Apparently he even picked up English while driving Western tourists around.

The first European summer school I ever attended was by sheer chance. I played Janacek at a festival in Singapore for a visiting Japanese pianist, and asked for a reference to attend the summer school on a scholarship. Small world - turned out that the British pianist hosting the summer school was his professor back in the UK. And so I got that scholarship, and off to Toulouse, France I went. And not surprisingly I missed the connecting flight from Frankfurt to Toulouse, and spend half a day wandering around Frankfurt. And that was the first of many European performances over the next few years.

The resolve to complete my education never left me. In 2017, I came across a distance study program offered by the University of London, under academic direction of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Independent study was an option, so I only had to pay exam fees ($3k a year), which was a really affordable option for an undergrad degree, and gave me the flexibility to continue working and travelling for music.

I chose the Bsc International Development, as I felt it had a good spectrum of social sciences. So I took it, and completed my first degree independently. It was British style education - you took four big subjects a year, read about five to ten books per subjects, and whatever papers were assigned, made your notes, practised your essays, and did a 3h unseen exam at the end of the year, with citations memorised. I remembered it was a list of 10 essay questions to choose from, and you chose 3 to 4 questions, and wrote about 1000 words per essay. Fun times. I still remember Boserup vs Malthus and Marcuse's one-dimensional man.

I haven't been back to Europe since 2020. Life keeps me here in Kingston, and I no longer feel that wanderlust. I guess I'm quite comfortable here. And I suppose Kingston reminds me a lot of my favourite European cities.

My favourite city is Girona, Spain, famous for scenes from Game of Thrones. It was always a great idea to stay in a smaller city near the major ones, avoiding the tourist crowds and the high costs. Ronda was another memorable city, for its architecture built into its steep cliffs.

After Toulouse, France, I played in Barcelona, then I played my compositions in Slovenia. Slovenia was a fun one. I took the tiniest, wobbliest plane you can imagine from Barcelona to Slovenia. The plane was so tiny that the flight attendant's head touched the ceiling, and she wasn't a giantess. We got to play on an antique grand piano that Franz Liszt played on. In Europe, I stayed in Spain the most, mainly in Barcelona. I picked up decent Spanish from the immersion.

In 2021, I completed my Bsc. degree and moved to Canada by myself for a new challenge. That's a story for another day. I look back with fondness at my bohemian years. It feels liberating to no longer play or teach professionally. Now I play whatever kind of music I like, in whatever way I want.

So for now... to Europe, with love.

Sant Joan les Fonts, Catalonia, Spain