The kids return

I write in jest as I always do for the students of Jinbo Huang.  This is the third outing that I have attended and I remain quite in awe.   It's still that the younger ones don't have that adult emotional awareness but they have skills and chops which will support their emotional interpretations as they grow older.  They take on Bach and Haydn and Beethoven and the rest with real competence at all ages, then on to a first year university student (Michael Anufriya) and we hear delightful delicacy and clarity in the playing.   And the ages do vary.  Charles Huang is not one of the older players, but he is impressive and capable and verging on that mature interpretation of the adults.  And the range of works is another pleasure.  Bach and Beethoven are popular, but also Faure and Sibelius and Bartok and something more obscure, Michael Carmichael.  And agian, they mainly played from memory.  One advantage of a young age, perhaps?  Just another Wesley Wednesday concert, and just another great pleasure.

The Piano studio of Jinbo Huang performed at Wesley.  On the day, the performers were Frank Huang, Charles Huang, Naomi Feng, James Jin, Charlie Sanoubane, Michael Anufriyeva and Damien Ruan (piano).

Kids today

Well not all kids can play piano like this crew.  They are students from the piano studio of teacher Jinbo Huang and they played a Wesley Wednesday lunchtime concert.  It's amusing how they go on stage, all of 10 years or so, but ranging in age, all dressed to the nines, looking very presentable, very young and quite small, at a grand piano, perhaps paired for a four handed duet, then you listen.  They were good, some very good.  I still notice adults with their depth of emotions, but the older ones here are showing that and the younger still present very satisfying youthful compositions (titles included The puppet and T-Rex hungry, no less!) through simpler Brahms and Beethoven and Strauss Snr to the movements from the Pathetique and Schubert Impromptu.  This is a mightily impressive crew and a pleasure to hear.  We can only look forward to some lovely playing around town.

Charles Huang, James Jin, Arabella Lu, Frank Huang, Naomi Feng, Angelia Lee, Khloe Chen, Charlie Sanoubane, Damien Ruan and Michael Anufriyeva  from the studio of Jinbo Huang played at Wesley.

And basketball

Today at Wesley, another student, this time Year 10, again a student of Jinbo Huang and a competition winner and wonderful pianist and with an entertaining and varied program.  Damien Ruan played a solid hour of solo piano: sonatas from Haydn and Scarlatti, themes from Grieg and Debussy and a crowd favourite from Chopin, his Military waltz op.40 no.1.  There was a lot of melody here, lots of open handed chords, hands over, fast and furious but also those killer tunes, so the program was a great pleasure.  The Grieg was his Wedding Day at Trolhaugen, instantly recognised like the Chopin.  And he played it all with skill and aplomb.  And he plays trombone in local concert bands ... and basketball and Taekwondo.  Kids with talent.  I admire their seriousness but also their easy-going commitment.  A blast; thanks Damien.

Damien Ruan (piano) played at Wesley.

Revelations

I admit I was wary of attending a concert of piano students, presumably from a very young age.  What could I learn from kids hardly up to my waist?  But I was wrong.  This was a huge revelation.  The younger kids would play music relevant to their age and musical development and do it surprisingly capably.  So the Bach lines were satisfying and the Haydn pleasant.  This from 9, 8, 10 years olds.  But then to watch the development of older students was a revelation, as they played more complex, rhythmically demanding, dynamically interesting, emotionally more profound pieces.  You could observe human development here, in the course of 11 short but lengthening pieces.  So we got into Beethoven and Chopin and ultimately Grieg and Rachmaninoff.  If I had a favourite, it would be Mykhail Anufriiev playing Rachmaninov Prelude C#maj op.65 no.2 "Bells of Moscow" for both the music itself and the wonderfully mature performance.  And then to finish with two movements of a Mozart sonata by a duo of 10yo Charlie and adult violinist Jason Li, who I had recorded leading the Black Mountain Piano Quartet just days before.  The playing was different and developing with age but always worthy and interesting.  The joy of it all was infectious and only helped by the sight of slightly nervous kids on stage.  The training must have been excellent, from teacher Jinbo Huang, (BMus ANU, PhD UCLA).  Maybe unexpected but a great pleasure.

Piano students of Jinbo Huang performed at Wesley.  The students were James Li, Lingwen Chen, Charlie Sanoubane, Naomi Feng, Frank Huang, Hongkai Chen, Michael Danilov, Damien Ruan, Mykhail Anufriiev and Charles Huang.  Jason Li (violin) joined Charles for a final Mozart sonata.