Why Asians are cleaning up classical music
NewsCanadian Broadcasting has touched upon a delicate subject – the heavy preponderance of Korean, Chinese and Japanese winners in major competitions and orchestra auditions.
Liz Parker asks: why do so many Asians spend their childhood studying classical music?
Read here.
And here’s a bonus track:
To honour my family in these last days of #AAPIHeritageMonth I’d like to share a clip from the Chinese lullaby 东北摇篮曲 that I heard so often as a kid, and that Kunal and I performed last month in our @wigmore_hall recital 🙏🏼😊🥰 pic.twitter.com/XmXmw3I0hG
— Fleur Barron (@BarronFleur) May 29, 2023
It’s worth noting in this context that the Chicago Symphony has around 20 Asian members, while the Vienna Philharmonic does not have any fully Asian members. (There are two who are partially Asian with the family names Keller and Hedenborg.) Why the huge discrepancy?
In his memoirs, published in 1970, Otto Strasser, a former chairman of the Vienna Philharmonic, describes the problems blind auditions caused:
“I hold it for incorrect that today the applicants play behind a screen; an arrangement that was brought in after the Second World War in order to assure objective judgments. I continuously fought against it, especially after I became Chairman of the Philharmonic, because I am convinced that to the artist also belongs the person, that one must not only hear, but also see, in order to judge him in his entire personality. […] Even a grotesque situation that played itself out after my retirement, was not able to change the situation. An applicant qualified himself as the best, and as the screen was raised, there stood a Japanese before the stunned jury. He was, however, not engaged, because his face did not fit with the ‘Pizzicato-Polka’ of the New Year’s Concert.”
In an interview with the West German Radio, a former first flutist expressed similar views:
“From the beginning we have spoken of the special Viennese qualities, of the way music is made here. The way we make music here is not only a technical ability, but also something that has a lot to do with the soul. The soul does not let itself be separated from the cultural roots that we have here in central Europe. And it also doesn’t allow itself to be separated from gender. So if one thinks that the world should function by quota regulations, then it is naturally irritating that we are a group of white skinned male musicians, that perform exclusively the music of white skinned male composers. It is a racist and sexist irritation. I believe one must put it that way. If one establishes superficial egalitarianism, one will lose something very significant. Therefore, I am convinced that it is worthwhile to accept this racist and sexist irritation, because something produced by a superficial understanding of human rights would not have the same standards.”
Time to add Mr. Osborne to the roster of SD columnists.
Any excuse to bash the Vienna Philharmonic because it isn’t identarian and ideological. What an irony!!!!!!
True to form you miss the point.
“I once used the word oriental at a rehearsal in Chicago, and afterwards, during a break, I was politely pointed out, “Maestro, it would be better if you used the term asian instead of oriental.” I tried to explain that I wasn’t capable: ‘I’m sorry, I grew up with this word, for me the Orient is something wonderful. And besides, what am I if you’re Asian?’ The answer was, ‘You’re caucasian.’ Killed me. (laughs)” Riccardo Muti, quoted by Die Zeit in a September 2022 interview.
This has always seemed weird. I’m all for using respectful terms, but “oriental” is an English word derived from the Latin word for “east,” while “asian” is an English word derived from the Greek word for “east.” So are we saying Greek is more respectful? Or what is the point if it’s not that?
“If you glance at the entry list of any music competition, or happen by any music school, you’ll notice a high proportion of youths or young adults who are of Asian descent.” —-
In 1980, the film ” The Competition” was released. For the finals of this piano contest, there was not one Asian to be seen or heard. So this cultural change, at least at one level, is fairly recent. It makes me wonder what the movie would be like if there was to be a remake today.
Music can be seen as one way to enter the Western marketplace. As society continues to globalize, we are getting to the point where the nationality of any musician is just not a factor, at least musically.
The author raises a number of interesting points, but while reading the article, I could not help but think that we could have said much the same about the Russian musicians who dominated the musical scene from a little before the mid twentieth century.
I can remember the time when Asians started to outnumber Jewish kids at Juilliard. It was regarded as a major sea change.
It is also true about figure skating in the U.S. Asians and children of immigrants are leading the way, particularly in the individual events.
It’s something to tell the other Asian neighbors about.
Strong work ethic, dedication, persistence, regardless of where one is from, can often determine the success rate of those winning competitions and embarking on young careers. Often, there are labels and stereotypes of specific peoples taking the main stages and prizes. We have seen this happen through the course of the last half of the twentieth century and first quarter of the twenty-first century. Without going into these specifics, it is one thing to launch a ship – it is entirely different to keep it sailing. Long careers are built over time. There is no Cinderella story. Winning prizes is wonderful – and not winning has its virtues for soul searching and persistence to better oneself, or keep trying, if they wish to. After the age limits of competitions – which is, actually, when artists begin to come into their own based on simply living life and experiences – a musician has to find ways to keep that ship sailing. The competitions are over for them, and they need to find their unique way to make music, make a living doing so, and sustain a life career in music. The point then, is not what is currently the trend, but, who are the musicians still sailing the ship into their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond? What did they do in their 30s, 40s and 50s to keep their ship sailing? That is the real question. Each has its own answer.
Intelligent comment as ever from Jeffrey Biegel.
‘Bruce Liu, Seong-Jin Cho and especially Yuja Wang and Lang Lang, who have many ardent followers. I can’t help but wonder how many of these superstars sought parental approval in their childhoods, and if that still motivates them throughout their music careers.’
I don’t know about the others but Lang Lang was forced from an early age to play the piano for hours on end each day. In his case he achieved fame and fortune but think of all those who suffered similar without the reward of stardom.
They indeed have very different journeys…
For Yuja Wang, if I remember correctly, she mentioned that her parents wanted her to be a ballerina because her mother was one. She said to she chose piano because she preferred to sit down, I think she started around 6 years old.
For Liu, he said that nobody in his family is interested in classical music, he is the only one and they never pressured him about it, he did whatever he wanted. He started at 8 with electronic keyboard, his parents didn’t buy him a piano, they thought he would get bored and quit because he had like 10 other hobbies.
So I think in their case, they were lucky that their environment helped them flourish in their own way. Especially Liu’s journey seems very unorthodox of that strict Asian upbringing stereotype.
And what a lovely man and excellent musician is Bruce Liu!!
And a vital audience into the future.
I attended a concert at The Kennedy Center in January when Seong-Jin Cho played Brahms 1 with Noseda and the National Symphony. At least half the sold-out hall were Asians (presumably Korean). Many families with young children. Obviously Korean pride had much to do with it, but the audience were attentive throughout and appreciative of the Schumann symphony as well.
Without the Asian performance and audience base classical music would sink like a stone.
Do you think the same amount of Koreans would have showed up for Kissin with the same motivations?
I just know that at Juilliard, Korean students made many Americans students like myself feel like foreigners in our own country. They created an unofficial policy of segregation there. Anyone who has studied at Juilliard knows that this is absolute true. It was uncomfortable watching them butter up their famous teachers while looking at us daily with deep hate in their eyes. We did nothing to them. They just came over and basically went to war with us simply because we weren’t Korean.
This is outrageous racism. Cast the mote from your own eye!
On some planets it’s called the truth. Deal with it.
Obvious. White supremacy.
Why do you say it’s a delicate subject?
Because snowflakes might read it?
I think the answer is simpler – the kids were exposed to classical music young and enjoyed it. Without the interest, it;s difficult to find the will to practise and win competitions.
Somehow this seems like very old news, although “cleaning up” seems a loaded and pejorative term.
Which does not prevent me from weighing in.
One thing to observe is that an intense interest in so-called “western” classical music goes back many decades, before World War 2. When Fritz Kreisler toured Japan in, I believe, the 1920s, he prepared a recital program and expected to give about ten concerts of that program. When he got there he learned to his panic that he was expected to give ten different programs because so many people had tickets for all ten concerts. That is the intensity with which the Japanese audience wanted to hear that much music from Kreisler and his pianist. He had to draw heavily on local sheet music collections just to come up with enough music for him and his pianist to play, and he played sonatas he knew but had not programmed in years.
Both Hong Kong and Japan had thriving record industries back in the 78 rpm era and many “western” artists made recordings there that never received western distribution. Biddulph released an entire CD of recordings Menuhin made in post War Japan and there were major sonatas on that disc, unknown to all but the most die hard American record collectors. There were also very serious and dedicated record collectors in Japan before and after the War.
I find it highly plausible that this intensity of interest in music was similarly applied to the “local” (non-Western) music, and was simply carried over to “western” classical music for those so inclined.
So the interest in the music found fertile ground and it was an unusually intense expression of interest, in Japan but also in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Thus the emergence and quality of such artists as Toshiya Eto and Fou Ts’ong, one or even two generations ago.
I think that intensity of interest — I guess you could call it concentration of a high order — has quite a bit to do with the proliferation of local musical talent, on many instruments, and also of singing. A form of concentration that can look beyond the distractions of childhood. Except for athletes and maybe chess and spelling bee champs we don’t expect kids to concentrate (or be able to concentrate) like that. Some parents and some educators do not WANT kids to have that concentration. Or to stand out in any way.
Kyung-Wha Chung told a funny story when she emerged as such an impressive talent. There was a cafe in Korea where children would stand on a small stage and play along with Heifetz recordings! And so she did. And imagine the pressure to do well.
When I interviewed Aaron Rosand for Fanfare Magazine many years ago he was preparing to give a masterclass that evening at the Bein & Fushi violin shop. He noted that most of the young people he’d be hearing that night were born in Asia or had Asian parents. (His own wife at the time, Monica Woo, sat in on the interview and was herself Chinese born). His explanation for that was simple: “They have the hands, and they have the parents.”
And again, I have to assume that the many Japanese, Korean, and Chinese instrumentalists and musicians who never played “western” classical music were also the results of having the hands and having the parents. I don’t know about “cleaning up” but my suspicion that the answer to this question, if it needs an answer, is less tied to classical music and more tied to music in general, and art in general for that matter. The secret is placing a high value on concentration.
To add to David K Nelson’s interesting narrative, the history of western music goes back even further. One of the gifts given by the Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci to the Chinese emperor in the early 1700s was a clavichord. His successors were able at least to strum on it!
Nearer our own time the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra was founded as a town band in the 1870s. Initially only the colonial occupiers were able to attend concerts. It was when the Italian pianist Mario Paci took over as MD in 1919 that Chinese were allowed to attend and eventually some became players.
About the same time Harbin in the far north east was becoming a regular musical Centre, thanks in large part to the influx of a large number of White Russians fleeing their revolution. Harbin boasted China’s first music conservatoire and a fine orchestra. Many musicians eventually moved south to Shanghai when the Japanese invaded, and from there to several other centers including Hong Hong. Incidentally Harbin now has a stunning new concert hall/opera house complex. It also still has the main road signs in the 3 earlier accepted languages – Chinese, Russian and English!
We tend to think of the early Chinese pianists like Fou Ts’ong and Lu Shikun as leading the way following Mao’s revolution. But if there is one father of western classical music starting before the revolution it surely has to be the ebullient, portly and almost always smiling conductor of the Central Philharmonic in Beijing Li Delun who appeared with Isaac Stern in “From Mao to Mozart”. He was a completely passionate advocate for western classical music and drew many to his concerts. Even during the Cultural Revolution when the orchestra was restricted to performing a few Chinese works, he continued to rehearse some of the western classics in their pig sty conditions. Much revered he drew a new generation to western music.
The Chicago Symphony used to accompany high school kids in televised concerto competitions for scholarship money. There would be five finalists, and it was not at all uncommon for perhaps four of them to be Asian.
I remember walking off the stage after one of these competitions, and a beloved old colleague, Don Evans, said in his cheerful but utterly deadpan way, “Yup…This exotic race comes out of nowhere. Works harder than everybody else, sounds better than everybody else. Now you Jewish guys know how we always felt!”
Because they are not so lazy and spoiled as most of the native european and american children!
Nutshell.
What’s “delicate” about the subject? It’s no different from wondering why a city like London has certain cultural-economic features not found in, by contrast, Birmingham or Liverpool.
Moreover, if a lot of folks in Asia are now keepers (or protectors) of the flame, good for them.
Interestingly enough, the very Orwellian People’s Republic of China has just taken the Disney Company (yep, Disney) to task for increasingly inserting a lot of political correctness (“woke”) into its entertainment. When even the PRC is noticing (and scolding about) that, you know things are really going off the deep end.
Nice. As for London and Brum being different, well…
“When even the PRC is noticing (and scolding about) that, you know things are really going off the deep end.”
That means nothing. Despite the fact that the government of the PRC is ostensibly socialist/communist, it is also, like much of Chinese society in general, decidedly traditional. They don’t like gay people, or black people, or really anyone non-Chinese, and certainly any Chinese person who strays a bit too far from the society’s ideal. They have much more in common with the American right than the American left in that realm.
I suggest we need to remember that much of Asia was pretty much destroyed by WWII, the Korean War and the disastrous campaigns of Mao which not only killed close to 30 million Chinese but then all but destroyed China’s education, cultural and family structures. As these populations dragged themselves out of desperate poverty, the slowly emerging middle classes were determined that their children would never have to go through the same agonies. For whatever reason, western classical music was considered a route to a better education and a brighter future. Thus children in their millions were encouraged in the very Asian way to study instruments.
The great American virtuoso Earl Wild who regularly toured Asia once told me the story of a Korean mother taking her eight year old daughter for an autograph after a Seoul recital by a major US pianist. She asked the artist if he could possibly give her daughter a lesson. He explained he was exceptionally busy but perhaps if they ever moved to the US he might be able to find time. Two years later, the same two were on the pianist’s doorstep. The mother had saved up enough money for the two to make a short trip to New York. “We’ve come for my daughter’s lesson,” she exclaimed!
The relatively recent development throughout much of the continent of a large number of fine symphony orchestras, conservatoires and the construction of a vast number of mostly excellent concert venues – both acoustically and architecturally – has resulted in far greater numbers attending concerts and recitals and has merely accentuated the influence of the typical Asian mama. Now an estimated 50 million Chinese study the piano. I cannot find numbers for South Korea but as a proportion of the population I expect they will be higher.
“For whatever reason, western classical music was considered a route to a better education and a brighter future. Thus children in their millions were encouraged in the very Asian way to study instruments.”
It might just be that they appreciate and understand the ineffable beauty and complexity of western art music and its universality as an art form. That and the fact that they have attention spans sufficient to understand any of it!!
But the other thing that is more interesting is that because Western instruments are foreign to Asians. Asian understanding of classical music comes from the Berlin Philharmonic coming to Asia on tour after World War II, which was very biased. So the Asian understanding of classical music is almost exclusively instrumental. Asians hardly ever go to opera. Opera is almost a blank field for Asian classical music fans. You’ll find a lot of classical music fans who have a deep understanding of Mahler, Bruckner, and Bartók barely listen to opera.
In a country like Japan, with a population of 100 million and a large number of classical music fans, there is only one functioning opera house.
Another point is that Japanese high schools have a long tradition of wind and marching music. Every school has a wind ensemble that conducts very rigorous training. But this is only used by them as a discipline and training on how to work with people. Rarely is there any musical development for the students. Most students join as an after-school club activity, but this does not develop their interest in classical music.
(I don’t speak English, the above text comes from a translator)
In Germany, Korean singers are becoming quite common on opera stages. As far as foreigners, they are filling a niche once occupied mostly by Americans.
True, but most Koreans will be found in the chorus or playing aunts, sisters, uncles or older family members. German audiences still prefer their romantic tenors and sopranos to look like them.
I can assure you that a German audience doesn’t give a damn how a singer looks or how their skin is colored, as long as they produce good music!
When I was in Rostock as a student about 15 years ago, there were several students from Korea studying voice at the Hochschule (music university).
Kiki makes a very interesting point. From instrumental soloists Asia now boasts a number of very fine symphony orchestras. But Opera has not taken root, even In Japan outside Tokyo. A number of small part time companies have emerged but none to indicate the quite large number of mostly Korean singers now gracing stages in the west. Yet I recall a production of Madama Butterfly at La Scala around the mid-1980s directed by Keita Askari and comprising almost all Japanese singers. There seem to be far fewer Japanese nowadays.
The article gets it partially right, but missing the key motivating reason is that these Asian parents consider classical music gives them and their kids class and prestige since they believe in the superiority of many aspects of Western culture, and they want to be part of that. Unlike so many blacks, Middle Easterners, Africans and Latinos, most Asians see the dominance of the West and why it is dominant as a given. Instead of constantly griping about white oppression, racism, colonialism, appropriation etc. , they want to learn the good aspects of it, adopt it and excel in it. And reject the bad aspects of it. A piano at the home with a kid playing Beethoven shows the family is cultured and educated, and brings status/honor to the family. That’s why you don’t see Asian parents push their kids into rap or rock, jazz or any other kind of popular music, because that’s low culture. You then throw in the hard work and discipline, and you get the results today after 2 generations.
This is the key to success to most Asians–learn n adapt the best parts of western culture, and then outwork/out innovate everyone, and emerge as the most successful minority in the U.S. n dynamic region in the non-western world. And they are not afraid of making normative judgments as to what’s high/low, superior/inferior, good/bad between the west and the rest. Somehow this is considered controversial or a trope because of the predominant anti-West slant of the western chattering classes. It’s sad to see so much of the west has been beaten down/intimidated into losing confidence in its own culture n history by these self-hating chatterers.
One or two “gripers” of the type you describe in my family. They should read your comment and learn.
And that’s why we love the Asians. Great post.
” It’s no secret that the study of classical music forces you to focus and develop detailed analytical skills.”
Wishful thinking. Some students will develop such skills but it’s not the classical music that does it.
Focus and analysis are necessary to excel in nearly every human endeavor.
Are successful Asian musicians more talented? No, they apply discipline to a strong work ethic. They have a respect for teachers and education.
Are they more intelligent? No, but they are smart about what works for success.
Do they feel superior to other musicians? No, but they do celebrate each others’ success.
They pursue opportunities without a sense of entitlement.
Not winning a competition or a job is seen as an opportunity or need to improve rather than proof of failure.
These are generalizations, to be sure, but prove to be true more often than not. And useful to anyone.
This is on point summary, I wholeheartedly agree
Why did russian and german children do this a generation or two ago? What stupid questions. The questions are the problem. People who CARE about classical music are the ones who deserve it. Period.
Because it is a revenge mission of East against West for centuries of racism, exploitation, abuse by dominating their music…Revenge is a dish best served cold, bon appétit!
“racism, exploitation, abuse” are not unheard of in the East, you know.
Rescuing western music is a strange form of revenge.
Deranged comment.
Being unheard doesn’t make it okay, does it?
My point was that Western enforced their culture for centuries and here we are, Eastern took it, absorbed then own it so I don’t consider it as “rescuing” I consider it as beating someone at their highest game and good for them.
Well, we’re talking mostly about people from Japan, China, and South Korea.
How did Westerners *enforce* their culture on one country which was never colonized by anyone and two other countries which were colonized only by that first country?
Certainly, since the end of World War II, no one has had the power to enforce Western classical music on any of those countries. That music has been freely chosen.
Could it be that more Asians are in the mainstream media now? For past several decades, the people of East Asia (Japan, China and Korea) have been a very big influence in keeping Western classical music alive and well (example, Tower Records is still open in Japan.) The rest of us in the West just do whatever we can to prevent the term “Western Culture” from becoming an oxymoron.
It’s very easy to over-think this subject. The simple facts of the matter are (a) it’s a numbers game in which the potential pool of talented Asians is far greater than that of our Western world; and (b) music performance is an area in which Asian people can participate successfully in Western society; and (c) like many if not all of our gifted Western musicians, Asian students started early in life, they studied hard, perfected their technique and consequently many have reaped the rewards.
ITS
THE
PHYSICAL
CD
SALES
IN
ASIA.
PERIOD.
If the area of the world where the most CD sales were BOLIVIA…..you bet where the winners would come from.
The classical music world is that pathetic…
My father talked about the 1930s, when every 1st-generation Jewish kid in Brooklyn was forced to play the violin. As a result, the person they hated the most was Yehudi Menuhin, whose success had prevented them from playing stickball instead.
Immigrant communities excluded from the mainstream gravitate toward occupations that are open to them, a process that is accelerated once one member of a community becomes a superstar. It’s not only music: a similar phenomenon occurred in boxing.
Apologies in advance for making several posts on this subject which is one I both know a little about and in which I am passionately interested. Jerome Hoberman is no doubt correct in his comments about the 1930s in New York. But he fails to recognize that what is happening with Asian students and western classical music in the west is but a drop in the bucket compared to what is happening in Asia as a whole.
If you look at cultural venues, Japan has more than 2,100 – in large part for classical performances and most constructed in the last 40 years. Tokyo’s excellent Suntory Hall opened in the mid-1980s. Von Karajan is said to have stated that his favourite concert Hall of all was Symphony Hall in Osaka which opened in 1982. Indeed he said it has “the best sound quality in the world.”
More recently China has been leading the way with many dozens of gleaming new concert and opera/theatre complexes, most with excellent acoustics, ranging from Zaha Hadid’s Guangzhou Opera House to the Grand Theatre in Wuxi by PES Architects to the MAD Architects’ designed space age 1,700 seat Harbin Opera House and Cultural Centre occupying a huge land area.
If China lacks one element it is in arts managers, but with arts management degrees offered by Shanghai University and elsewhere and more coming from other parts of the world, this will soon change. What is especially encouraging is that well over half the audiences are under 40. And as Rory Jeffes, then CEO of the Sydney Symphony, said in a New York Times article in 2016 after several concert tours in China, audiences now “have really come to grips with the music and want to understand and engage with it in a real way.”
https://architizer.com/blog/inspiration/collections/chinese-opera-houses/
My late sister, pianist Anne Koscielny, once said about the numbers of Asian students studying Classical music, was that interest in Western countries was declining, and was being taken up in China, et al. She suggested, that it might all come back around to the West, some time in the future. She had many students from Asian countries and they had a work ethic and seriousness which she deeply appreciated, not to mention the musicality which knows no national boundaries.
yes however they do not have the heritage nor the music in the blood and soul that, for example, the Viennese do when they play the Strauss waltzes. You can clearly hear it in performance (at least I can). I am Asian but prefer hearing non-Asians play Central European works for this very reason.
I’ve spent decades working and living in East Asia. Shenzhen, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Taipei are places I’ve called home. I regret not having spent much time in South Korea. Without any doubt, classical music is just music in these places.
America’s musical landscape dominates much of the pop world (we are finally seeing some impact from K-pop as it crosses the borders).
Having sat through some concerts at Juilliard and New England Conservatory in recent years I couldn’t help but wonder—will most of these students from Korea return to Korea with their degrees? Will they all have graduate degrees? How much work will be available to them? South Korea isn’t such a large country (like mainland China).
Here’s the point I’d like to make—and I am open to contrasting views.
My niece explained to me that some of her female Korean classmates told her they didn’t have plans to pursue performance careers. They hoped that their prestigious music degrees would appeal to a well-educated suitor. I have heard similar things from colleagues in Japan and Taiwan.
That makes perfect sense. To many Asians it’s all about the ‘face’… for the purpose of elevating your social status in a career or in matchmaking. As a Taiwanese-American I can vouchsafe this is true.
Maybe because western people, under woke influence are comitting cultural suicide….