People always ask me, where do you feel you are most at home? Such a simple question, yet so difficult to answer. As an artist, one must cultivate understanding for all cultures and backgrounds, and have empathy for people in general. For how can an artist feel the vulnerability and fragility of beauty and life without empathy and compassion? Through compassion, one is kind.
This is one of the reasons why the question is so hard for me to answer. I always feel close to the hearts of the people, no matter where I am. I am Chinese, I am Canadian, I am American, I am German, I am European, I am Asian, I am human. I am the sum of my experiences wherever they have been. Every culture has its own history, its own background, its own climate, its own borders, even sometimes its own religion. Having grown up in a family which has such a liberal outlook, looking at humanity through x-ray vision, at the spirit of each person rather than at the colour, political preference, religion, socioeconomic background allowed us to cultivate a gratitude towards life and its myriad of nuances and colours. The individuality of each person, yet the similarities between all of us, is what makes life magical, and fascinating. I don’t subscribe to any one religion, yet I feel I am more religious because of it. God knew what he was doing, making such miraculous, perfect structures which repeat over and over again with the most amazing variations. Ironically, it is only because of our similarities that we are so diverse. So I guess the answer is, I feel home is where the heart is, and it is with humanity.
My father and mother both came from simple backgrounds, and emphasized the importance of respect for life, and a good work ethic. Patience, dedication, compassion, love, determination, quality, responsibility, moral conscience, all the intangibles of the human spirit, were fostered. They didn’t have the means for material luxuries, and they didn’t really care for it anyways. Character and spirit were much more important. Both were educators - my father in history and political science, and my mother in the math/chemistry area. Both loved music. Hearing Dvorak’s New World Symphony, Mozart’s Eine keine Nachtmusik blaring out of speakers at train stations in Taiwan didn’t stop there. Those magnificent sounds were to remain in their hearts years later in Canada where their three daughters were born. I distinctly remember how often my father would break into song, and not just in the shower in our simple home. Anytime he felt happy, a beloved tune would resonate through the house. He loved Dvorak’s Humoresque, Schumann’s Traumerei, Mozart’s Violin Concerti, and Chinese folk songs, maybe because he won a music contest with his beautiful tenor voice and got to sing on stage with China’s most respected singer, Sze Yi Kwei.
So it was that my parents decided that we should all learn an instrument. Their friends across the border had four daughters who were studying Suzuki Method so my parents drove us from Canada over to the US every week for violin lessons for three years before finding a wonderful Suzuki teacher in Vancouver. Actually, they enrolled me in violin lessons, but it spread like the melted chocolate in a fondue in the household. Both sisters cried their eyes out to also have lessons, and of course, my parents gave in. My sisters were much more talented than I was. I was more interested that THEY played fantastically; in other words, I was more focused on education right from the start. And I didn’t like to practice. I also didn’t want to fail either. So in order to be able to play at all, I wanted to find a better way, an easier way. It was the combination of my parents’ educational background, liberal and compassionate spirit, their love for the beauty of music, and my dislike of practice, which all led to my interest in education and development of my methodology.
These were at least the seeds which sprouted later, through experience, and my mentor, Josef Gingold. His generosity of spirit, his humanity, and love for life radiated with a force. He inspired his students to love music, the violin and therefore, life. He was a wonderful storyteller, and could make even the most awful of jokes hilariously funny. What a sense of timing! We learned rubato that way. I had other influences also and here I would like to mention a few: Arthur Grumiaux, Shinichi Suzuki, Jascha Heifetz, Denes Zsigmondy, Gyorgy Sebok, David Oistrakh, Dinu Lipatti, Clara Haskil, Annie Fischer, Yehudi Menuhin, Rostislav Dubinsky, Andras Schiff, Wilhelm Fürtwangler. Many of them through recordings, and a few through personal contact. And of course, there were the influences through reading great literature, and seeing great art.
Getting your education through experience and music gives you such a sense of gratitude, and makes you believe in something greater than just looking at objects. Beautiful objects were created by someone, someone with a big spirit after all! Having contact with people who are more mature than you, more enlightened than you, more experienced that you, gives you such a feeling of inspiration, and only underlines your own feelings of believing in the impossible. It is faith in life. That is what leads me to value education more than anything. I want to give each child the feeling of making the impossible possible. I want them to feel their inner creative spirit, their innate potential, they’re uniqueness. I want them to respect life and make this world a more compassionate, enlightened, kinder world, a world with a bright future. It is up to us to give our next generation the tools, knowledge, and especially the spirit to navigate our rapidly changing times with insight, foresight, love and passion.
As a musician, I have firsthand knowledge of how powerful music is to transform childrens’ lives. Because it is everything; language, sports, science, math, philosophy, history, art, spirit, LIFE! It is the best way to educate children. It begins at that critical time and allows all that innate creative potential to flourish and blossom. That is why I have dedicated my life to music education. Education must be serious and fun, work and play, challenging and simple, creative and thoughtful, structured and free. This balance is difficult to strike, but without it, we have at least some chaos! I developed my method to try to accomplish this, and I hope it will help at least some people. We cannot and should not treat children like robots. They need structure, but not for us to tie them down rigidly. They have souls, each unique. We must respect that and deliver a curriculum which fosters individuality, confidence, creativity, and a belief in themselves, a faith in life.
I believe with good education, we can and will see a future which is full of light and happiness. We need to work together towards our common goal, our common good, a joy of life.
