January 12, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 13
Ridgewood
Ramsey’s Chen sisters bring China to Ridgewood
by John Koster Ramsey’s Chen sisters recently offered stand-out solo performances on instruments most Americans have never heard of at one of the most memorable concerts on the Ridgewood Library’s schedule. “There are very few kids in the U.S. who are willing to learn Chinese music,” the performers’ mother Daphne Wong observed. The Chen sisters – 15-year-old Jacqueline and 14-year-old twins Melinda and Melanie – were the only performers from Northwest Bergen County among the 35 players at the Ridgewood concert of the Music from China Youth Orchestra. But each Chen sister was a soloist. Jacqueline’s sonorous performance on the erhu, the one-stringed Mongolian fiddle, was evocative of a number of deep emotions – nostalgia, yearning, and perhaps a touch of tragedy that brought misty eyes to many people in the packed audience. Melanie’s dancing fingers on the liuqin, or moon lute, had the audience nodding their heads and tapping their feet in time. Melinda, an internationally-ranked gold medal performer on the yangqin, or hammer dulcimer, had the audience in awe at the incredible speed and precision of her playing. The music itself might have been familiar to a Western audience as the background to Hollywood films about old China – sometimes quaint, sometimes mysterious – but seeing it actually performed was a striking experience. While the melodic line was repetitive, it was never redundant, and the melodies built on themselves with improvisation and keep the audience fascinated. For Jacqueline, who studies intensely in academic subjects at Ramsey High School and also plays piano and saxophone, the Chinese music allows her a chance at expression of her inner self. “Music is just an outlet for me to do whatever I feel like, whenever I feel like it without anyone telling me what to do,” she said. Melanie agreed that being absorbed in the feelings the music evokes is even more important than technical proficiency. She added, “There’s a lot more to music than just hitting the right notes. I see it as a form of expression, each one unique to each song. For example the ‘Fisherman’s Song,’ the one I played is a calm yet exciting piece, showing the different sides of fishing. There’s the fun part – with the slides – the calm part, as if the boat is sailing with the waves, and the hardship and intense part – my solo in the middle – maybe where there’s an unexpected storm. I always imagine a small boat in the sea in order to get myself into the right mood before I play.” Melinda noted, “Some of the songs I play are hard, and I like to think of it as a challenge. Music is really something more of an understanding. If you just played out a song, for example, it’s not really the same as watching the person’s expression change as they play the music. See, a performer can play ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ and I would be perfectly fine with it as long as that performer looks like he’s enjoying the piece. Really, I couldn’t care less about the notes
The Chen sisters
– although it’s a large part of it. The emotions are the true music.” Melinda’s proficiency rating is so high, even at the age of 14, that she has to send tapes to Beijing for evaluation because
there are no qualified experts in the United States. “Right now, I’m a Level Nine, and there are 10 levels,” she explained. “For the (continued on page 17)
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