Artist of the Week

Sharon Chi- Versatile Musician

By Adam Straub, courtesy of Kent News

Sharon Chi ’11 is one of Kent School’s most versatile musicians, playing both the flute and the piano very well. In order to pursue further study in piano and in music, Chi participated in two different musical programs this summer: Tanglewood Summer Session for High School Students and Adamant Traditional Summer Session.

Tanglewood Summer Session is a three week long program organized by Boston University at the summer residence of The Boston Symphony. Here, she was taught by a piano professor from Boston University. Upon arrival at the camp, Chi became very nervous after seeing so many other very talented pianists from all over the world. Nevertheless, she quickly fell in love with all the great opportunities that the program had offered. On a regular day of the session, she would go to piano master classes, take music theory courses, participate in the wind ensemble go to performances and concerts at BU, a as well as practice her own pieces in her spare time. Chi especially enjoyed the performances of Boston Symphony and other famous soloists like Emmanuel Ax and Leon Fleisher.

One of the most beneficial parts of the program was master classes, according to Chi. During a piano master class, a master teacher is invited to observe one student’s performance and to give advice. However, not used to playing in front of so many musicians, she grew nervous and did not play as well as she had hoped to in her first class. Her teacher told her what mattered the most in a musical performance was not the accuracy of the notes or the techniques but the feeling of the piece.  Chi liked the way her teacher defined success: “being able to stand up and try again after failure.” This encouragement and her peers’ support motivated her to “enjoy” getting through the stress and challenge. Chi learned that instead of focusing on every little mistake, a true performer should focus more on expressing the music.
At Tanglewood, Chi greatly benefited from not only the extraordinary teachers from all over the world, but also many other extremely talented musicians at her age. By communicating with these kids, Chi found out that they shared many similarities in terms of the obstacles that they all encountered in the study of music How to balance the study of music and academics was one of the difficulties that they all faced.  Chi said, “It felt good knowing that other students were facing the same dilemmas that I was too.”

Very shortly after leaving Tanglewood, she went to Adamant Traditional Summer Session. Her experience there was very different from that at Tanglewood. The biggest difference was the age range of the students. Adamant students were generally older and more experienced in their music study. Most of them were college students who were already majoring in music. Only three participants were younger than she, and all three were prodigies. Chi soon realized that Adamant was a bigger challenge for her, but she still benefited greatly from the individual lessons with various teachers at Adamant. “At first, different advice from different teachers confused me greatly. However, after digesting these different ideas, I eventually realized that they were all the same thing,” she explained. From Adamant experience, Chi has learned how to develop her own personal style and technique.

These summer programs not only helped Chi improve the physical techniques of her piano playing, but also changed how she looks at life in general.  Chi said, “This summer, I realized how important it is for people to have a passion in life that they can always pursue. When you really love doing something, it becomes the only thing that matters at that moment. Just enjoy it then and have no worries about what others think of you or what might happen in the future. Finding your own life goal and passion is the ultimate success in life.” Chi feels very lucky that she has found one of her greatest passions in life and feels sure that piano is a lifelong passion that she will continue to pursue.

 

When Darza began to tour boarding schools, she was ironically intimidated to participate in art because, “everyone was so good.” However, after taking art survey and several other art classes, she was encouraged by Ms. Lynch to fully develop her artistic talent. She soon realized that she has always had a talent for art without realizing it. Since that time she began to fully devote her time and passion into the creation of art. This same passion had led her to great achievements in under a year, and during her fifth form year, she won a silver recognition in the 2009 State of Connecticut Scholastic Art Awards held by the Connecticut Art Education Association.

Darza has proved herself to be multi-faceted as an artist. Instead of just focusing on one particular area, she prefers to work with different kinds of art. She has tried painting, drawing and photography, yet she feels “more in control with pencils and pens in hands.” She is an “imperfect artist,” who is never satisfied with her work, causing her to continually experiment with her work. She comments on her perfectionism, “I never really liked my work and I can always see things that I want to improve. I would even get tired of doing art in general, but I never really got out of it completely.”