DISCOVER YOUR REAL POTENTIAL
What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians?
I think we have to re-think the role of artists in this world. For me, the mission of an artist is to share the wonder of classical music with as many people as possible, and to reach a different public, because this music has a secret capacity to really console people, to give them dignity, and to reveal something inside which is greater than us.
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Who or what were the most important influences on your musical life and career?
Maria Curcio-Diamand, who was Arthur Schnabel’s favourite pupil, was my first great mentor. She opened my ears and heart to the art of sound and technique.
What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?
I think my biggest challenge has turned into an asset. When people see a photo of me, they don’t expect me to play all the works of Ligeti!
Lucille Chung performs at the Incontri in Terra di Siena chamber music festival this July. Further information here
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“It took years to understand that it is not enough to play the piano – it is a task for a lifetime, to understand how music really works. Also I was not so interested in the piano. I loved the opera. Oh my God, it was so great to be in Vienna is those days, and hear singers like Mirella Freni!” she says, looking up as if receiving a beatific vision. “In fact none of my musical gods were pianists. I loved the violinist Joseph Szigeti, when I heard his recordings of Mozart I was moved to tears. And the cellist Casals. The great piano God in Vienna at that time was Wilhelm Backhaus. I didn’t like him at all, but you couldn’t say that.”
Photo Source: Opera Chic
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What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians?
It is very important for musicians not to copy anyone else, rather search and discover your own individual and unmistakable style. It is a long creative process, but in the end it brings you much more joy and makes your music unique and more remarkable.
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Who or what inspired you to take up the piano and pursue a career in music?
My musical beginnings were not as idealistic as I would expect to hear from many others, but they did have an impact.
When I was 6, my family moved to a small house in Minnesota. The previous owners left a piano in the basement since they did not want to move it. This piano we inherited was over 100 years old and after tuning, we discovered it held tinker toys, playing cards, and candy wrappers. It was not loved before, but it became mine. I think because of that, I always see a piano as the holder of stories. I immediately personify it and believe the piano should be cared for so it can teach others. I love playing unfamiliar pianos (especially late 19th and early 20th century Steinways) to see what the piano will teach me.
I majored in piano performance as an undergraduate at the Eastman School of Music. As a student, my primary motivators were other musicians—faculty and graduate students. I played a great deal of chamber music and I was profoundly inspired by the instrumental and vocal professors especially violinist, William Preucil and mezzo-sopranos Jan DeGaetani and Marcia Baldwin. My favorite experiences were playing chamber music, premiering contemporary works, performing with the Eastman Musica Nova Ensemble (I performed George Perle’s Concertino for Piano Winds, and Timpani with them among other pieces), and performing with the Eastman Wind Ensemble. I am thankful for the doctoral conducting students who taught me how to perform in an ensemble. Pianists are not often granted those opportunities.
I don’t think I still thought of music as a career, however, until after I graduated. I questioned if I should continue studies. I didn’t seem to follow the same path as other pianists and I believed you could learn from every musical experience (solo, chamber, ensemble, playing for dance classes, performing as a church musician) so I was not focusing on a particular career and I was not interested in participating in competitions. I just had the desire to learn. I desperately wanted to be surrounded by many other musicians who could teach me what they knew, whether it was the music of Mahler, Art Tatum or Led Zeppelin.
I was one week from graduation when I would say I received the inspirational talk. Rebecca Penneys, who was not my piano teacher at the time, called me in to her studio. She heard from one of her students that I had significant fears/doubts about pursuing music as a career. I had never had a conversation with her before that, but her words made the difference. I still find her insights from that conversation to be invaluable.
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What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?
It may sound simplistic to say this, but the biggest challenges of my career have been developing that career in the first place and then sustaining it. I can honestly say that I have loved my professional life, but for years it involved a huge amount of hard work and uncertainty about the future, together with the constant battle of trying to juggle travelling and working at unsociable hours with bringing up a family. These pressures are common to many freelance professions, but we pianists inhabit a world overcrowded with dazzling talent and I can’t think of a single moment over the years when I have felt I could take my career for granted. The musical challenges (of which there have been many!) have felt easy by comparison.
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