A resounding piano forte
Shanghai — NO one paying attention to recent musical trends in Asia can have failed to notice it: The Chinese are crazy about piano playing. Among city dwellers, there's been nothing like this enthusiasm since the '80s, when an embrace of the Japanese-originated Suzuki teaching method created a national army of child violinists. According to some estimates, as many as 15 million hopefuls in China -- most of them young -- are toiling to gain proficiency in this highly competitive skill, and the number is growing. Those unable to make it through the tough entrance exams of the country's nine overflowing conservatories opt for one of hundreds of private piano schools sprouting all over.
The sheer availability of pianos -- one company alone, Pearl River, claims to turn out 280 every day -- seems also to have focused many middle-class parents' aspirations, especially in a country that still enforces a single-child policy. For these people, the incentive to see their kids seated at a keyboard is less about artistry or copying the West than about producing offspring of demonstrable excellence.
Parents make huge sacrifices to ensure that their children emerge from their education suitably polished. Moving lock, stock and barrel to be close to the best teachers, fathers give up careers in banks while mothers sit by the piano for eight to 10 hours a day, monitoring their children's progress. And in many cases, the investment pays off.
Passing through London last year, I was lucky enough to meet one of China's leading piano pedagogues, Dan Zhaoyi, who runs the piano department of southern China's Shenzhen Arts School and has nurtured a number of the country's top piano professionals, including the young international star Yundi Li. According to Dan, talented Chinese children typically start playing the piano at age 3 and can master Chopin's etudes by 8 and a Mozart concerto by 12. "By the time of graduation at 18, students can tackle big concertos by Liszt or Rachmaninoff," he said.
Then in October, I had the opportunity to test this assertion firsthand after being invited to China's first Piano Concerto Competition, to be held in the city of Shenzhen. "You will be surprised," Dan said.
A newfound source of civic pride
- Obituaries - Sheldon (Teddy) Steinberg; Piano Teacher Oct 28, 1995
- A Natural Bonding - Parents, Children Can Get in Tune on Piano Feb 04, 1988
- East Meets New West Feb 20, 1997
