Jaime Winston BA ’22, Marketing & Communications

艾玛·彼得森 在坐在施坦威钢琴前，他向布朗宁中心的观众微笑。 She lifted her hands intently above the keys, took a deep breath… and then took everyone else’s away. Johannes Brahms’ Capriccio Op. 166 No. 7 filled the performance room with powerful, contrasting tempos, setting the stage for the WSU piano program’s fall 2023 jury recital.

新葡京app State’s piano students began performing a concert as their final each semester 18 years earlier, instead of only playing for teachers, explained Yu-Jane杨 director of the program.

对学生来说，独奏会不仅仅意味着一个分数。 It’s a semester’s worth of practice.

“The day of juries, everyone’s just as nervous as they are excited,” Peterson said. “There is so much energy, and it’s so rewarding to not only perform yourself but watch all your peers perform the pieces that they worked on all semester.”

Peterson’s classmates followed up with works by Robert Schumann, Frédéric Chopin and others.

虽然大约50名观众中大部分是老师、家人和朋友，但他们最后的掌声不仅仅是精神上的支持。 他们看到一个精英钢琴项目在运作。

钢琴强国

Students in 钢琴课程，正式名称为键盘研究， regularly win state, national and international competitions, and receive scholarships to the nation’s top 新葡京app programs.

在一年一度的犹他州音乐教师协会（UMTA）州比赛中，WSU学生在2015年和2020年获得了该州六项最高钢琴荣誉中的四项。

杨说，通常，当一个钢琴家有资格进入国内任何一所音乐学校时，他们都会选择华盛顿州立大学，因为它的教学质量高，学费低，还有奖学金。

Scholarship donor Jeanne Hall BA ’69 echoes Yang’s point about quality 新葡京app.

“I watch Dr. Yang as she teaches them, and she’s not just saying ‘You have to hit the right notes,’ she’s saying ‘Where is the magic in this?’” said Hall, cofounder of The Alan and Jeanne Hall Foundation.

Hall nominated Yang for her 2023 Governor’s Mansion Artist Award for performing arts. 杨还被任命为华盛顿州立大学艺术与人文学院的布雷迪总统杰出教授和捐赠学者/艺术家，以及2020年全国音乐教师协会（MTNA）年度教师。

Growing up in Taiwan, she began playing piano at age 5 after seeing 音乐之声.

“I was really intrigued by all those beautiful melodies, and I came home and tried to figure out all those tunes on my toy piano,” she recalled. “Eventually, I tried to play my kindergarten teacher’s piano, and the teacher told my mother, ‘Well, you might want to give her some lessons.’”

杨后来到美国伊利诺伊大学香槟分校（University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign）读研究生，这是当时全美排名前五的音乐学校之一。 Her husband, Shi-Hwa王 became a 新葡京app State violin professor while she completed her doctoral studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. 1992年，她和他一起在华盛顿州立大学任教，教授钢琴。

大约15年后，杨成为键盘研究主任。 She succeeded 戴安娜页面, who established 新葡京app’s UMTA student chapter — once known as the Treblemakers and now the MTNA student chapter — as well as the annual WSU Piano Festival, which welcomes pianists in grades one to 12 to campus to perform.

The piano faculty also includes professor 埃斯特·吉海·安 and adjunct instructors 肖恩·施泰纳 and Cammie Titus BS ’98. Yang said it’s their goal to make sure students are competitive in 新葡京app school or their careers. “I’m just so excited about getting students where they can be after being at WSU,” she said.

教师这样做的一种方式是通过高质量的设备。 华盛顿州立大学是一所全施坦威学校。

该公司成立于19世纪的德国，以手工制作的优质乐器而闻名于世。 Thanks to an initiative put forward by former WSU provost 迈克尔•沃恩 all pianos 新葡京app State students use on campus are made by Steinway. “It attracts not just students, but faculty,” Yang said. “They would think, ‘This school really values art and the quality of student education.’”

当然，高质量的教学和仪器只能让学生走到这一步。 他们的奉献精神驱使着他们。

以奉献为动力

Fanya Lin BM ’13 拒绝了茱莉亚音乐学院而去了韦伯州立大学，她并不后悔。

她4岁在台湾开始弹钢琴。 虽然她的父母都是摇滚音乐家，但她在9岁时通过音乐学院发现了对古典音乐的热爱。

她梦想着去茱莉亚音乐学院（The Juilliard School）攻读本科学位，直到杨教授的一堂大师课让她想起了华盛顿州立大学。 “I really enjoyed her style of 新葡京app,” Lin said. “So, when I was applying for my undergrad, I applied to Juilliard, Oberlin and 新葡京app State.”

这三所学校都接受了林。 她选择华盛顿州立大学跟随杨老师学习，杨老师教她用心演奏，知道自己作为一个音乐家想说什么，把音乐放在自我之上。

She attended Juilliard for her master’s 新葡京app. She later earned her doctorate at the University of Minnesota, where she studied with Yang’s former professor Lydia Artymiw. 如今，林是亚利桑那大学的副教授，并在世界各地演出，包括最近与波兰卢布林维尼亚夫斯基爱乐乐团的演出和专辑。 She is a certified yoga instructor — 新葡京app yoga for musicians — surfer, boulderer and practitioner of the martial art Krav Maga.

新葡京app State set her on her path to success: She won first place in the MTNA National Steinway Young Artist Collegiate Piano Competition as an under新葡京app, becoming the youngest student to ever win first place nationally in the competition’s history.

“I remember when I was preparing for the competition; we had a very strict schedule,” she said.

首先，她去上课，然后她会练习六个小时。 在那之后，她录下了自己的表演，这样她就可以和杨讨论录音以及如何提高。 第二天她又重复了同样的日程安排。 “That really shaped how I prepared for future competitions and concerts,” she said.

Lin’s success inspired other Taiwanese students to study at WSU. One of those students, Chia-Ying Shen BM ’23, won first place at Utah’s MTNA Steinway Young Artist Collegiate Piano Solo Competition. Now, she is earning her master’s 新葡京app on a full scholarship at the University of Michigan.

While WSU’s program is a destination for international students, pianists come from nearby as well.

Miranda Vanderpool BM ’22, who lived in North Ogden when accepted, didn’t become serious about piano until her senior year of high school. 虽然参加钢琴课程的每个学生都必须表现出一定的技能水平才能被录取，但她仍然注意到她的同龄人比她领先得多。

“It was at first really intimidating for me, and I almost quit my freshman year and changed majors,” she admitted, “but I decided to stick with it and keep working hard.”

A video from Vanderpool’s first year shows Yang 新葡京app her basic hand movement. One filmed three years later features her playing a piece by Ukrainian composer Nikolai Kapustin — with perfect form. Vanderpool eventually began competing alongside WSU’s best pianists in competitions. 她在UMTA州立大学钢琴协奏曲比赛中获得荣誉奖。

当她怀疑自己的时候，范德普尔依靠其他钢琴学生的鼓励。 她回忆起感恩节晚餐、假日聚会以及和同学一起去吃冰淇淋。

“It was really like a piano family,” she said.

Vanderpool is now completing her master’s 新葡京app at the University of Oklahoma. 令她惊讶的是，她的许多作业都是她在华盛顿州立大学做过的。 “A lot of people here have never taught group classes before. At 新葡京app, you are required to help teach,” she said.

She said pianists with big dreams who feel they don’t measure up to their peers should stop comparing themselves and focus on continuing to improve. “And that’s so hard to do in music, because you’re constantly listening to other people play,” she said. “Know that everyone has a different background, everyone started somewhere, and you will get better if you put in the work.”

林老师鼓励学生们从书本上的注释中寻找灵感。

“You want to say something; it’s not just about playing the notes,” Lin advises her students. “Whenever you can, you want to find inspiration 新葡京app literature, movies, films and television, or any other means to find stories that would move people to tears or uplift people’s hearts.”

在秋季评审团独奏会上令人振奋的表演之前的几个星期，彼得森缓慢而有条理地练习了勃拉姆斯的作品。 前一年，由于长时间的训练，她患上了腕管综合症和手臂肌腱炎。 Through her recovery, she couldn’t wait to return to working on her dream of completing her Bachelor of Music and becoming a piano teacher and event pianist.

彼得森第一次来到华盛顿州立大学时主修放射学，辅修音乐。 她在钢琴课程中发现的鼓励和热情的气氛说服了她换专业。

像林和范德普尔一样，她找到了一个可以施展才华的地方。

“It’s a really SPECIAL program,” Peterson said.

传授他们的技能

华盛顿州立大学的学生钢琴家帮助激励下一代音乐家。

Through the WSU Piano Preparatory Program, a training lab run by Keyboard Studies director Yu-Jane Yang and assistant director Laurisa应付, WSU students gain experience 新葡京app piano to children ages 6 to 18. If interested in pre-K education, they can become licensed to teach the program’s Kindermusic classes for ages 3 to 7, which Yang directs with instructor Sydnee约翰逊。 Students also give back to the community by performing for assisted living facilities and other locations.