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Pianist Jingge Yan to treat fans with thrilling performance in Dubai

The Chinese pianist is slated to perform at Dubai Opera on October 22

SAMIT event group is back with another edition of the VIP Classical concert and this time the young Chinese pianist Jingge Yan, who was entitled the first “Beethoven Ambassador” by the city Bonn, will be performing in Dubai on October 22.

Famous for his intellectual profundity and the expressive vitality of his piano performances, Jingge Yan has also won multiple international awards and is an active soloist who performs regularly in major cities around the world.

City Times had a chat with the pianist to know more about his relation with music and expectations for his upcoming recital in Dubai.

What does music mean to you?

Music to me is a 'material' for recording and expressing feelings such as — joy, pain, excitement, anger, confusion, and especially longing to love, peace or God. Thanks to music I can capture feelings very precisely recorded by composers from different cultures, who have been dead for decades and who spoke different languages. While playing music, I translate whatever feelings were recorded by the composer to the audience, along with a combination of my own feelings at the present moment. This is why music is magical to me - it surpasses the limitations of time and life and goes beyond the boundary of language and culture.

As the first Chinese pianist in history to interpret and record all Beethoven Sonatas, what about Beethoven's music captivates you, and how is it different from other scores?

Beethoven's music has a very special core value in it, which is that no matter how much one has to struggle in his life or for his belief, the ending of his music works are always full of hopefulness and encouraging power. This is probably why Beethoven's music never lost its popularity in the past two hundred years in human history, especially in our era, while diseases and wars are so threatening to the world, we need his music and the spiritual power behind his music.

How did you come to pick up the piano?

My father loves music but couldn't learn piano during the cultural revolution in China. I learned the piano to fulfil his music dream. I had a hard childhood studying piano in China because both my piano teachers were very often yelling at me in lessons and I hated the routine practising and feared going to lessons every weekend. It was when I went to Oberlin College to start my Bachelor's pursuit that I for the first time got inspired and encouraged in piano playing.

Have you composed any original scores? If yes, can you talk about it? If not, then how hard is it to compose an original.

I take my interpretation at piano of the works of the music giants in history as my own 'composing', because to interpret music composed decades or centuries ago on a modern instrument requires tremendous intellectual work and experiments. This is another form of composing, and it is more interesting to me than writing complete new works or to create new genres.

What can the attendees expect to see in your upcoming performance for VIP Classical concert series organized by SAMIT Event Group in Dubai?

SAMIT event group is an innovative organization, which requested me to combine performing and lecture in my concert. I love this idea within the VIP Classical concert series and will give a vivid recital backed with an interesting background of music by various composers.