U.S.-China Relations
Feature Story
Oboe in hand, Chinese American musician strives to ignite passion for wind music
By Sophia Lei Zhu
Published on April 13, 2016
Dressed in black suit, Liang Wang, the principal oboist of the New York Philharmonic, handled Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto with a candied tone at the David Geffen Hall of Lincoln Center on Tuesday night.
It is the last of four consecutive concerts featuring Wang as a concerto soloist. Around him on stage are some of the world’s most experienced orchestra players.
“From no soloist in recent memory have we heard the expression, emotional content, technical mastery, fluidity of technique that we have heard tonight. The Strauss Oboe Concerto is a great piece – Wang made it greater,” said Philip Myers, who joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Horn in 1980, the year when Wang was born.
The concerto is the one Wang performed for his solo debut after he attained the highly-coveted post of the principal oboist of the New York Philharmonic in 2006. At the age of 26, he became the first Chinese Principal Oboe of the prestigious philharmonic and also the youngest one in the history of the orchestra since 1842.
Successful and famed as he is, Wang is modest. “It’s rare for the philharmonic to put on four concerts. I appreciate their trust in me,” he said before the concerts at his Manhattan apartment. “I think I am more mature musically now. Can’t say it’s better because a different age has different things good about the particular era.”
In the past 10 years, besides a heavily weekly dose of four concerts at the philharmonic and endless hours painstakingly carving reeds from cane, the Chinese-born musician has found an inner call to promote the double-reed instrument he plays and the orchestral wind section.
“I have a deep feeling that I represent wind music. It is my responsibility to make more people know about it. Interest arises only after there’s familiarity with the instrument,” said Wang, whom The New York Times dating back to 2006 called the “Pilgrim with an oboe, Citizen of the World.”
BRING HIS DREAM AND PASSION TO WIND MUSIC
Regretfully admitting that wind music is not keeping pace with string music like the piano and violin, Wang says he’s determined to “do more to promote wind music.”
For the past 10 years, he has given master classes at many noted U.S. musical institutions. He is currently a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music and New York University.
Talking about his students, Wang, in undisguised pride, said, “One student is playing English oboe at the New York Philharmonic; one is resident principal at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; two principals at (U.S. President Barack) Obama’s army bands are also my students.”
“I hope I could cultivate more outstanding students as they represent an extension of my career. The sense of achievement they give me is greater than playing well myself,” he said.
After years of success in the realm of Western classic music, Wang, who is from Qingdao, a coastal city in the east Chinese province of Shandong, is more than eager to bring the music back to his motherland.
He joins China’s overseas talent recruitment scheme known as the “1,000 talent plan” to teach in his home country. Beginning this year Wang will teach at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra to teach students of wind music.
“I believe you do different things at a different age. Ten years ago, I tried hard to gain a solid footing on the stage. Now both performing and teaching are part of my life,” he said.
Wang already has a clear picture of his future plan: in the next five years, he wants to teach more master classes and bring the world’s best wind musicians along with him to perform in China.
“What I really want to do is to stimulate enthusiasm in others, to bring my dream and passion to students learning wind music. The most important result of teaching is that a large number of students would come out and appear on the international stage,” he said.
TO BE AN ARTIST, NOT A TECHNICIAN
Wang says he can only make a difference with love and passion for his work. “Just like cooking, everybody makes different dishes. Love comes through the flavor.”
To Wang, music is in his DNA and is now a way of life. “The process of making music is miraculous. No matter how old the piece is, when a musician plays it, it’s right in front of you,” he said.
He began his musical journey at the age of seven when he heard his uncle, then an oboist at the Qingdao orchestra, play Swan Lake solo with the oboe.
At 13, he won a rare oboe scholarship at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and left home for good. Two years later, he went to Idyllwild Arts Academy in the U.S. state of California, a high school program.
After graduating in 2003 from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with famed oboist Richard Woodhams of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Wang started an audition circuit with a golden touch and received a number of job offers.
For the coveted post of principal oboist at the New York Philharmonic, Wang faced competition from hundreds of musicians in six rounds of tests that included solo, ensemble, sight reading and impromptu play. A year and a half later, musical director Lorin Maazel finally gave the first chair to the young Chinese, who was then the principal oboist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
As a Chinese it wasn’t easy being accepted, he said, adding that “you have to work extra hard; you have to be better.”
Further more, Wang spends more time listening than practicing as he focuses on “what a musical piece tries to express.”
“Playing music, you don’t want to be a technician, you should be an artist. An artist knows what to express, has personality and knows his or her own identity,” he said.
Wang finds inspirations from other musicians. Chinese conductor Long Yu is a culture translator in Wang’s eyes, while Chinese American cellist Yo-Yo Ma is the musician he worships.
“He is not only a famous musician; he also connects different cultures, leading the passion of generations. Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble brings together musical instruments and different music from around the world,” Wang said. “As a Chinese-born musician, you should aim higher. Playing music is far from enough. It is more important to see music as a cultural bridge.”