Tiffaney Hsia of West Windsor is an invited guest musician for “Celebrating Spring with Music Bouquet,” a benefit concert on Saturday, March 21, at 5 p.m. at Westminster Choir College’s Bristol Chapel. A reception in Thayer Lounge follows.
Hsia, 10, who was born in Pittsburgh and moved with her family to West Windsor three years ago, is a fifth grade student at Village School. She is already a
respected musician in viola, violin, piano, and flute performance.
Her mother, Jen, a vocalist and pianist, is a consultant. Her father, Chungwei, who plays guitar, works for an insurance company. Her younger brother, Joseph, also her musical partner, is a second grade student at Dutch Neck School.”We enjoy making music and singing at home,” says Jen.
Tiffaney began her music studies at the age of four with viola lessons with Eugene Phillips, a former Pittsburgh Symphony violinist and Carnegie Mellon University faculty. Phillips, 89, “continues to provide Tiffaney his caring support and encouragement to this day,” says her mother. She studies violin with Vladimir Agilin, the founder of American Fine Arts Festival; and piano with Natalie Zhu, the artistic director of the Kingston Chamber Music Festival.
Her mentors and inspiration include Roberto Diaz, the president of the Curtis Institute of Music; Misha Amory, the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music; and David Kim, the concertmaster of Philadelphia Symphony.
“My belief is to let her enjoy the beauty of music and the art and joy of music making,” says her mother. “She has had an array of performing experiences, solo, duet, quartet, chamber, and orchestra, and has enjoyed every unique nature of them all.”
Her mother is often asked if Tiffaney is a music prodigy. “My best answer is that when performing, her fingers glide back and forth in making the music and bringing back alive the greatest composers on stage,” she says. “The music from her heart expresses and recreates the personae that the composers had created hundreds of years ago. She moves and inspires her audience by her heartfelt performance.”
Tiffaney discovered the sound of viola when she was four and has been playing since. “At that time, our grand piano was her toy,” says Jen. “She sped through the viola music books like a breeze. Because of her perfect pitch, she was able to play all the songs that her kindergarten teacher taught in class and became a big inspiration to the whole class who all wanted to take instrument lessons and become like Tiffaney.”
When she was five, she made her first solo performance and performed duets with Pittsburgh Symphony musicians at PNC in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the age of six she performed for an audience of 500 in Jeannette, Pennsylvania. At seven, she joined the Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra as the youngest musician. She also has performed with Baroque Orchestra and String Quartet at Temple University, in Philadelphia.
“Tiffaney is honored to be invited as the guest artist to play in this benefit concert,” says her mother. “It is her hope to bring to the audience the beautiful music of Handel, one of her favorite composers, Sonata for Violin and Piano in D major.”— Lynn Miller
Benefit Concert, Westminster Conservatory, Bristol Chapel. Saturday, March 21, 5 p.m. Benefit for the Dr. H. Korkina Scholarship Fund features solo and chamber works by Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Chopin, Lizst, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Milhaud, and Gottchalk. Musicians, mostly students of Larissa Korkina, include Julian Edgren, Brandon Lee, Taylor Lee, Rodger Liu, Farshad Tahvildar Zadeh, Molly Zhu, and Tiffaney Hsia. Donations invited. 609-921-2663. www.rider.edu.
Molly Zhu, 13, also of West Windsor, began her studies at age four at Westminster Conservatory in the Suzuki piano program with Emi Tokunaga. In 2002, 2003, and 2004, she was a winner in the Young People’s Piano Competition sponsored by International Concert Alliance. She has also received honors and awards from Young Artists’ Competition for piano sponsored by the New Jersey Music Teachers Association, Westminster Conservatory Concerto Competition, Piano Teacher’s Society of America, American Fine Arts Festival, and Young Musicians Competition. The Community Middle School student has already performed at Carnegie Hall several times.
