| Contents |
Introduction: a rising scale in relative minor -- Early lessons in globalization -- Voices: David Kim, Lifen Anthony, Toshio Takahashi, Kyoko Takezawa -- The roots and routes of Asian musicians -- Playing gender -- Class notes -- Voices: Margaret Leng Tan, Cho-Liang Lin, Makoto Nakura, Kenji Bunch -- A voice of one's own -- Conclusion: musicians first. |
| Abstract |
Musicians of Asian descent enjoy unprecedented prominence in concert halls, conservatories, and classical music performance competitions. This book looks into the reasons for this phenomenon, starting with the author's own experience of learning to play piano in Japan at the age of three. She shows how a confluence of culture, politics and commerce after the war made classical music a staple in middleclass households, established Yamaha as the world's largest producer of pianos, and gave the Suzuki method of music training an international clientele. Soon, talented musicians from Japan, China, and South Korea were flocking to the United States to study and establish careers, and Asian American families were enrolling toddlers in music classes. Against this historical backdrop, the author interviews Asian and Asian American musicians, such as Cho-Liang Lin, Margaret Leng Tan, and Kent Nagano, who have taken various routes into classical music careers. They offer their views about the connections of race and culture and discuss whether the music is really as universal as many claim it to be. Their personal histories and the author's observations present a snapshot of today's revived and dynamic classical music scene. |
