Winners To Play Carnegie Hall, NYC, Sunday 27th January
15 young students from Lambda School of Music and Fine Arts aged 7 to 13 have won top prizes at the acclaimed Crescendo International Competition, winning invitations to perform at New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall this Sunday (27th January 2019).
Of the young performers, the youngest are 7 year old Ziqi Fu and Miya Peng, and 8 year old Patrick Yin. Despite their young ages, Ziqi Fu and Patrick Yin are both prize winners of many previous international piano competitions who have previously been invited to perform in Rome, Italy.
Other winners include Clari Ma who was only 6 years of age when she inspired the creation of Lambda School’s annual Montreal Children’s Hospital fundraising event, the multi-award winning Chloe Ding, and Kiana Ngai whose CV already boasts a multitude of awards in both music and dance.
About Lambda School of Music and Fine Arts
Lambda School of Music and Fine Arts was founded in 2008. It is a private music and fine arts located in Pierrefonds, in the West Island of Montreal (Quebec).
In the last decade, almost 80 Lambda students have been invited to perform at internationally recognized venues in New York, Salzburg, Vienna, Rome, London, Luxembourg, and Brussels. Students have also been accepted into the Bachelor’s program in music performance of major prestigious university in North America, including the New England Conservatory of Music, Peabody Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music in the United States, as well as McGill University (in Montreal, Canada).
PRODIGY HOTHOUSE?
It appears like Lambda School is the hothouse for cultivating musical prodigies. However, according to Dr. Angela Chan, director and founder of Lambda School, it’s even more than that.
Dr. Chan, a concert pianist, with Ph.D.training in piano performance, psychology and education, said, “Lambda is a unique school in that Lambda’s goal is not to train prodigies. Rather Lambda strives to provide an inspiring environment for young students to fully develop their potential. Through working closely with students and their parents in a collaborative way, which focuses on family support, continuous encouragement, coupled with methodical and efficient teaching, students flourish at an exponential rate.” Students are encouraged, and learning becomes a passion of overcoming challenges. This way, students develop a healthy attitude. They learn to be disciplined, focused, committed, and also learn to solve problems calmly and creatively. The achievement is in the process. The end result is more an acknowledge of one’s efforts.
Chan asserts that “At Lambda, there are no assumptions of potential. We believe in doing our best to nurture each student. Understanding that each student is different, we set challenging, yet realistic and attainable goals for them. Through achieving each step, learners become more motivated and confident, and hradually develop a stronger passion and commitment toward music.” As the saying goes, success breeds success.
The young performance students basically grow up on stage. They take lessons in a concert hall with 2 full-sized concert grand pianos. This provides the opportunity for them to develop a sense of stage early on. In this environment, they also consistently practice to perform through open rehearsals and recordings, which provide them useful feedback of their performances.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
The young pianists from Lambda are not just trained to be performers exclusively. At Lambda, they learn about sharing, social responsibility and giving back to the community. Last Sunday (20th January), 15 Lambda students played a benefit concert at Piano Vertu, and raised over $4000 for the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
As the initiator of this event Clari Ma (pianist), who started the idea of Lambda holding beneficial concert for charities 5 years ago, (then at the ripe age of 6!) indicates, “we benefitted from the help of the others, and it is important that we give back to the community and help those in need.” Young performers learn to help others by sharing their passion in music.
