Hi Kerry, et al, Hailun Piano in Ningbo, China sponsors a cooperative training program, jointly with the local Polytechnic College for training piano technicians. I forget the size of the class or the duration of the course of study, but a certain number of the top ranking graduates of this program are guaranteed jobs at the Hailun factory, which pays significantly higher wages than other piano factories in the region. Those who do not make the cut for the factory jobs have learned a skill that is increasingly in demand, as more and more of the Chinese population can afford and desire to own pianos. I had the unexpected pleasure of going to a ceremony at a music conservatory. The students seemed to range in age from elementary through high school ages. They had a new building to be dedicated solely for piano pedagogy, and Hailun had donated some pianos to get them started. The architecture was designed to accommodate a style of teaching quite different than you might expect in the US. The building was many-sided, almost round. There was a large central room with a grand piano and two vertical pianos. Surrounding this were many small practice rooms, all opening into the large central room. There was also a second floor, doubling the number of practice rooms direct above those on the first floor, with the central area being open to the floor below, and a narrow railed walkway connecting the practice rooms of the second floor. The second level formed a sort of balcony above the first. The total number of practice rooms was probably about 40. At the change of classes, a new group of uniformed students, in single-file, would parade around the room, one at a time dropping off into his/her practice room. With all the doors standing open, each student would begin immediately practicing his lessons, even as the others were still making their way to their respective rooms. Once everyone was in his room and working away, the teacher would call them out, one at a time, to receive his daily brief individual instruction, while the others continued to work away in the own rooms. In the course of an hour, each student would have his individual instruction, and the balance of an hour for practice time. As an observer, in the large central room, it was quite a surreal menagerie of sound! I have also had the pleasure of attending several piano performance competitions in Ningbo and Shanghai. All that I have attended were sponsored by Hailun, and they saw to it that the pianos were well prepared. I can well imagine that there might be other performances where the piano prep left something to be desired, but for the biased sampling which I attended, I was quite satisfied with the prep work. In fact, the young man, who most often did the concert prep is their head voicer. He is a fine technician, and I go out of my way to complement his work. I know how rare is it that a technician is recognized for his contribution to the success of a musical performance! What struck me most about these musical performances, as others have stated, is that the skill level and musicianship of such incredibly young artists is astonishing, and even embarrassing in comparison to the general lack of commitment and dedication from their counterparts in our own culture. The second thing that stood out in my observation of these performances was the general lack of social etiquette in the audience. It is apparently a relatively new thing, attending concerts of this sort, in their culture, and they just don’t know proper conduct, among the adults or children. In our culture, these audiences would be considered extraordinarily disrespectful of the performer. Most Western artists would storm of the stage in a rage if confronted by these audiences, and I wouldn’t blame them. As a musician, it was hard for me to remain calm just observing this conduct. Frank Emerson
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC