CONWAY — Amy Chang becomes animated when she talks about music. Her face lights up, and she talks with her hands - almost as if she were conducting an orchestra, which is appropriate, since she has been a professional orchestral conductor for more than 20 years.
“As a conductor, I am between the orchestra and the audience,” Chang said. “I have to be clear to let the orchestra know what I want so that the audience can receive the tone quality I want them to have.”
Chang is the visiting professor of orchestra at the University of CentralArkansas and guest conductor of the Conway Symphony Orchestra. She arrived on the campus Jan. 10 and will depart in May in time for a concert in her home country of Taiwan.
Since arriving in Conway, Chang has conducted two concerts and will conduct a third on April 28. She said she is enjoying her time at UCA.
“The students here are very imaginative andopen-minded,” Chang said. “I can be their friend here. We can go out to eat and talk, and it’s very nice.”
Chang, who teaches orchestra at UCA, said she teaches a heavier course load at the Taipei Municipal University of Education, where she is a fulltime professor. She is also the director and conductor of the Yu-Yun Orchestra in Taipei.
She began developing her musical abilities at a young age.
“I started taking piano lessons at age 4,” Chang said. “My grandmom was a singer; she studied in the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1938. Mom learned a little piano. My Chinese name means ‘beautiful music,’ so I know that before I was even born, my mom wanted me to learn music.”
At age 10, Chang attended a specialty school where she majored in piano and minored in clarinet. In junior high, shedouble-majored in both of those instruments. In 1984, she was awarded first prize in the National Music Contest and was credited as the youngest person to have conducted at the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall.
She graduated from the University of Southern California with master’s degrees in clarinet performance and instrumental conducting.
“I always admired the conductor,” she said, “because this person stands in front. I thought, ‘This person has very good knowledge.’ I said, ‘I want to become like him.’”
She said that depending on the country, it can be difficult for a woman to become a conductor.
“In Europe, it is very hard for a woman to be a conductor, but in America, there are more women on the podium,” she said. “In my country, there are quite a few women conductors. Men have dominated [the profession], but that doesn’t mean a woman can’t do it. I always am well prepared before I stepup on the podium - I know what I want, and that helps me to have the guts to do it.”
She said that as a student, she approached a male conducting teacher.
“I said I wanted to learn, and he said, ‘Why?’ I said I wanted all of the knowledge he had. And he gave me a smile, but he was gentle and said, ‘OK, let’s try it.’ He took me seriously.”
She said students in her country begin training on instruments at an earlier age than their American counterparts.
“In Taiwan, the skills are there. Here, the students have more emotion and imagination. That is good because you can practice technique, but you also need the imagination,” she said.
“In Taiwan, I don’t need to teach technique, but I might need to tell [students] a story or a fairy tale,” Chang said. “Here, I tell [students] precisely what I want - how to make a pretty line. I always tell students, ‘Make the right notes. That’s first. If you bring emotion but the intonation isbad, that is not music at all.’”
She said her goal is always for the audience to walk away having enjoyed the music.
“I want to make sure every time that people walk out of the hall saying that they liked the performance,” she said. “When I was younger, I was very conservative, but I realized that as the conductor, you must do something. You try to pull energy and strength from the orchestra and give the audience the same feelings that you are having.”
Chang said she’s having a good time in Conway and enjoying the slower pace of life in Arkansas.
“The people are so nice here,” she said. “It is like a vacation.”
Staff writer Daniel A. Marsh can be reached at (501) 399-3688 or dmarsh@arkansasonline.com.
River Valley Ozark, Pages 140 on 03/25/2012