Tiffany Poon

Tiffany Poon, age 13, grade 7, born and raised in Hong Kong, played around with her toy piano figuring out complicated musical passages at the age of 2, began lessons at the age of 3/4, when she began practicing for 3-4 hours a day, and is currently studying at Julliard. Currently on her Eurotrip, and stopped by the University of Bologna for a 3 hour concert, where students from the Music studies department were extended a private invitation – music therapy and pedagogical center. I brought three friends with me to listen to her play a very traditional repertoire of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, and Liszt, ending with two encores.

One of the things I appreciate the most in Italy is their appreciation for the arts, in a general sense. Never have I received such positive responses in relation to studying music, and wanting to go into the music therapy field. Never have I sensed such enthusiasm from a whole group of people, such fascination and encouragement. Perhaps this is where I need to be to believe that it could actually happen. My mom told me that as she watches me study music, transfer to Wesleyan and begin studying ethnomusic, she’s watched my perception to music grow, change, and mature. I think there’s something about music that brings me to life, and feel things that only happens when I’m in the experience of music. Epiphanies and specific sensitivity to certain things occur. The times which I’ve attended concerts in Italy have resulted in the most interesting sensations, sometimes a clarity in something that’s been gnawing at my mind, or a certain organization of a chaotic decision, or simply just an overwhelming sense of peace.

Having watched so many concerts in my life, I find it fascinating that one of the best concerts I’ve attended happened in a small Sala called Sala Mozart in one of the department buildings in Bologna, and by a 7th grader. Not because she has amazing technique, or that her execution is near-perfect, or that she knows how to express music and interpret it so that she seems to own it, all of which she does, but because she plays with the confidence that she understands the music at a certain level, even at such young of an age. Listening to her play and watching her play is a complete different experience, and I’ve never seen anyone enjoy playing so much. A piano player myself, I am aware that we all learn how to use all the parts of our body when playing, both to help our playing, but also stage the performance. However, for her, she doesn’t seem to stage a performance, she just seems to feel the music at every moment. My favorite moment? I was very familiar with her repertoire, and knew when all the challenging bits came up. I loved watching her expression change as she tackled the challenging bits, an expression of delight and fun, as if knowing that it would go well, and that finish of satisfaction. How different from the rest of us when we know we’re about to hit a tough spot! If only we all tackled tough spots with such frivolity. Watching her is such excitement, and brings such relaxation and a peaceful mind. Do I believe in music therapy? It’s very difficult not to.

My favorite piece that she played was Chopin Ballad no.1, partially because I love Chopin, and the Romantic period, but partially because I have special relationship with the Chopin Ballad. This was one of my mom’s graduate performance pieces, in which I sat under the piano at a very young age and listened to her practice for. It was one of her favorites. In high school, when I first began learning it on my own, she gently recommended that I pause it, and play it later, telling me that it’s an incredibly dense piece, emotionally, and that she felt I needed to be at a certain maturity level to play it. I was 17. I haven’t touched the piece since then. That night, when I listened to her play it, somehow I understood what my mom meant, because listening to her was a very different experience from any time I’ve heard it. My hands itch to pick up that piece again. I know that it will be a different experience everytime I pick it up again, 2 years from now, 5 years from now…each time I hit a different stage of life and maturity level. She certainly handled the piece with a certain maturity level.

Therapeutic. That was the word I used to describe her playing, very unconsciously, when I stepped out of the Sala and walked my friend to her bike. Without really thinking about it, but because it was how it felt. All of a sudden I was estatic about art, and couldn’t help but notice how beautiful the lighting on architecture here (no wonder my night shots turn out so well!), or remember the first time my mom and I listened to my brother learn Rachmaninoff’s Flight of the Bumblebee, and call it “the dying bumblebee”, or how much I wanted to just lie in bed because how much adrenaline was running through me. It has been so long since I felt such passion for classical music, having spent so much time with drumming and the avant-garde.

It will be impossible to load videos onto this post, so youtube her, if you get a chance. She plays with such grace. If you see her in a black and red dress, that would be her, the night I saw her…

Unfortunately there are none of the Chopin…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3oaKkTsLn0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUHR-H8bz3k