nwasianweekly.com
Feb. 16, 2008

Regina Yeh

UW professor will play Carnegie Hall to unite people of different cultures

By James Tabafunda
Northwest Asian Weekly

She excels in one language that’s universal around the world: music. Not just the familiar sonatas of classical music, she lives “to connect to others” every time she plays Asian and Asian American music on the piano.

After winning the Special Presentation Series of Artist International Auditions last year, Dr. Regina Yeh will make her debut performance at New York City’s Carnegie Hall on May 27. Before then, she will release her first solo CD, tentatively titled “Favorites of the East and West.”

At Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, she will perform classical works ranging from Chopin and Schumann to traditional Chinese folk songs. She will also perform works from Chinese American composer, Zhou Long, and Taiwanese composer, Ma Shui-Long.

“It feels like I’m speaking with my hands,” described Yeh about her talent.

As excited as she is over her upcoming performance at the world-famous venue, she is equally excited over working as a professor on the keyboard faculty at the University of Washington’s School of Music.

To keep herself even busier, Yeh and four others — Dr. Nancy Jang, Abhijay Bhatia, Cortilia Lin and Sarah Lin Bhatia — created Collaborative Artists EastWest. Its purpose is to connect communities through music and other arts. Through concerts, workshops and competitions for young people, it features works by Asian and Asian American composers as well as those from Europe. Collaborative Artists’ next concert features virtuoso pianist Chiu-Ling Lin at the Sherman Clay Recital Hall in Seattle Feb. 17.

Yeh discovered music as a 4-year-old in 1977 when her mother gave her a toy piano. Today, she plays the finest Steinway and Sons concert grand pianos in such countries as Slovakia, France, the United States and her native Taiwan.

Born in Taipei, Yeh and her family moved to Wenatchee in 1982. Despite having a “tough” time living in the Eastern Washington town, she said, “I’ve always had the passion for music.”

From her father, she cites an unwavering determination to support her music education through her teen years, including driving three hours to Seattle from Wenatchee for her every-other-week piano lessons with Hungarian piano legend Bela Siki.

“My parents are my heroes. Without their support and sacrifices, I wouldn’t … be in music,” Yeh said.

At 13, she won her first piano competitions: the Pacific International Piano Competition, the Washington state championship and the Northwest regional championship of the Music Teachers National Association’s Baldwin Junior Piano Competition. She currently serves as co-vice president of the association’s Seattle chapter.

Yeh remembers a music teacher at one of the competitions approaching her, crying with facial tissues in hand. She told the teenage Yeh how beautiful she found her performance of a Beethoven piece.
“This is why I want to be a musician,” said Yeh about the life-discovering moment.

She received her bachelor’s in music — with a magna cum laude distinction — from the University of Washington in 1993. She then attended the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, culminating her studies with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2003.

One of her first paid jobs included working as an accompanist for the world-renowned Boys Choir of Harlem for about a year. “It was a great learning experience,” she said about working with the group’s founder, Walter Turnbull, who died in March 2007.

Last year, Collaborative Artists partnered with the National Association of Asian American Professionals, Seattle chapter.

“Regina is a very impressive young lady,” said Ed Alipio, the NAAAP-Seattle member who helped draft the sponsorship agreement.

He says the sponsorship will help Collaborative Artists “expand its artistic boundaries.”

For more information about Dr. Regina Yeh, go to www.reginayehpianist.com. For more information about Collaborative Artists EastWest, go to www.caeastwest.org.

James Tabafunda can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

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