From inspiring others to donating performance earnings to fight COVID-19, music is more than just individual enjoyment and accolades for many of the young performers at the Taipei International Piano Festival’s “Stars of Tomorrow Concerto Night” (明日之星協奏曲之夜)
Seven promising pianists from around the world performed with the Taipei International United Youth Symphony Orchestra (台北國際聯合青年交響樂團) on Wednesday last week at the Eslite Performance Hall in Taipei as part of the program, which is now in its 10th year.
Among the musicians were three siblings from Canada, who were all performing in Taiwan and with an orchestra for the first time. Thirteen-year-old Audrey Sung (宋林錡) has played all over the world since she started learning at the age of 6 and has won numerous prizes. Through winning the gold prize in the junior category at the Pacific Rim International Music Festival, she had the chance to play at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in 2019.
Photo courtesy of K Art Production
She’s no stranger to giving back to the community, as she became the youngest donor ever to the Hong Kong Children Charity Foundation in 2020 just before her 10th birthday, giving nearly NT$1.5 million from her earnings, prize money and red envelope money to help with pandemic prevention.
“I just see a lot of professors and teachers helping others, and I got inspired by different people I met,” she says.
Last year, her CAD$30,000 (roughly NT$713,000) donation to several foundations in Canada went toward promoting music education, but she hopes that her playing itself is also encouraging to young people around the world.
Photo courtesy of K Art Production
“I hope to create more opportunities for different people to try music just by performing more and inspiring them,” she says.
Audrey Sung’s younger twin brothers Brayden (宋承展) and Jayden (宋承澤), 10, are also talented pianists, winning second prize in the children’s category at the Pacific Rim International Music Festival in 2021. Both earned special prizes, giving them the chance to play at Carnegie Hall. The three often do volunteer work together, such as helping at beach cleanups and playing for charity groups.
It was Brayden who showed interest in music first, starting at the age of 5.
Photo courtesy of K Art Production
“I like it when people enjoy the music, sometimes they clap to the beat or hum the tune,” he says, noting that it’s been a challenge to play with an orchestra for the first time. “You have to be in the right tempo, you can’t go faster and slower,” he says.
Brayden also wants to inspire more people to learn piano by “helping them enjoy music,” he says. “I want more and more people to learn piano,” he adds.
Jayden started two years later than Brayden; he wasn’t interested in music at first but liked the songs that his siblings were playing, especially The Butterfly Lovers. Through this experience he’s learned how to communicate with the band better. Like his siblings, he wants to play in more places with different people and inspire others to pick up music.
Photo courtesy of K Art Production
“I want people to experience how fun music is,” he says.
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