Strike up the bands

Wang Ziyi learned about the Tianjin school two years ago and is one of the graduate students with a major in collaborative piano. The program places extra emphasis on opera-coaching.

"I performed with students from the opera department of Cleveland Institute of Music when I studied there as a soloist. It was an interesting experience to collaborate with the singers. It brings a different kind of joy when I perform with singers, compared to being a soloist," says Wang, who started to play the piano at the age of 5.

"The three majors in the graduate program at Tianjin Juilliard School are all collaborative. It is critical for musicians to collaborate, which enables them to listen to each other and share music," says He Wei, the school's artistic director and dean.

He was born in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province, and trained at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music before going to the US to study at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1991.

The Tianjin school also hosts a pre-college program, modeled on Juilliard New York's century-old pre-college program, with the Tianjin school's inaugural class launched on Sept 7, 2019. This September, nearly 90 pre-college students aged 8 to 18 came to study at the Tianjin campus every Saturday from around the country, such as Shanghai, Beijing, Xining in Northwest China's Qinghai province, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

"The students have demonstrated unusual commitment throughout the whole process despite some enormous challenges caused by the pandemic. These students look for adventure and they are self-assured and confident enough to embrace the unknown," He says.

According to Brose, once the pandemic is over, the Tianjin school will become a new hub for performing arts, with shows-about 100 concerts a year-by students, faculty members and guest performers opening to the public.

The Shanghai Quartet, a well-known chamber ensemble founded in 1983, will give a recital on Dec 16 at the Tianjin Juilliard School, performing the works of Beethoven.

The quartet, consisting of first violinist Weigang Li, second violinist Angelo Xiang Yu, violist Honggang Li and cellist Nicholas Tzavaras, joined the Tianjin Juilliard School this fall as resident faculty members.