I was my greatest honor to be invited to give a violin lecture recital on the topic of "To be, or not to be- the role of music performer", on July 7th, at Art Reading Cafe in Taipei city. I have often been asked about the following questions: What are the purposes of listening to classical music, besides calming our minds after a long day? What do you do in the practice room, besides turning your bloody squeaky wooden box? What does this music MEAN?
As an active performer who has dwelling upon these vey questions for the past twenty something years, I believe that Music is a universal language, not any more specific or vague compared to oral languages (trust me on this). To most performer, music is a language that requires active listening (and text-reading to some extend), interpreting through our own minds, decoding the extra-musical implications hidden behind the staff, then if we're the lucky ones we sit in a practice room and learn to program our body movements in order to re-create the composing process with our instruments, and then present the music to the audience during the concert. While the music is being played by the performer/interpreter: Music is, after all, a tandem art (combination of "art of musical work,", and the "art of the performance"). It is our mission, as performing artists, to find the balance point while being faithful to the text and going further with ethics and aesthetics in music.
I had a blast sharing my thoughts and my understanding of music to a house full of supported friends, using a term from the famous conductor maestro Benjamin Zander, those "shining eyes" overwhelmed me with joy. What more can one ask for?
學習與演奏小提琴多年，我發現群眾普遍有以下幾個問題：古典音樂是用來放鬆助眠用的嗎？這首曲子是在表達什麼？我聽得懂嗎？對樂器稍有基礎者，更常困惑: 練習時除了技巧，音樂家們每天花這麼多時間在練什麼？
儘管每個人對這些問題抱持著不盡相同的看法，而我個人始終相信，音樂家像是身兼運動員和演員的角色，一方面藉著重複的練習將精準度以及個人體能狀態提升到最高最好，另一方面音樂家必須利用作曲家在樂譜上所給予有限音樂的指示，予以揣摩詮釋。
今年夏天非常榮幸有這個機會，受到彭老師和青田藝集 Art Reading Cafe'的邀請，我與壯壯刻意挑選了四首截然不同時空背景的樂曲，藉此探討音樂家在演奏音樂時的角色，在7月7日星期五的晚餐後，於青田藝集與各位音樂愛好者分享。
音樂使生活美滿，加上美食和文學令生活完整。
隨著我的演奏和解說，觀眾眼中漸漸閃爍美麗光芒，昨晚的我毫無疑問的是世界上最幸福的人。我從來沒有想過自己能夠鼓起勇氣、(用些許顫抖的)手拿麥克風，對著這麼多觀眾用中文分享我對演奏音樂的心得...非常感謝青田藝集和彭老師、楊照老師：提供如此充滿文藝氣息的場地、完善的視聽設備、以及會前那讓人身心靈滿足的美食饗宴，讓金金公主能夠開心做自己，向愛樂者們分享四種皆然不同的音樂風格。
Photos from "To be, or not to be-Jean Huang's 2017 Violin lecture recital"
