As the first New Zealand pianist to gain entry to America’s prestigious Juilliard School as an undergraduate and now performing around the world as a soloist and concert pianist, Syliva Jiang gets little down time.
It is one of the reasons she enjoys coming home to New Zealand where she finds her work-life balance is a lot better than in New York where she lives.
"All of my friends are always wanting to hang out and do stuff and go places. And so it’s nice to kind of be swept up in that a little bit when I have the time."
This trip she is home for a few months, giving her time with friends and family, as well as a Chamber Music New Zealand (CMNZ) solo tour, masterclasses and performances with the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra (APO) and others.
"Getting to do a solo tour following the footsteps of lots of incredible legendary musicians ... this is a big milestone for me and I’m really excited."
She has put together a programme of music, in conjunction with CMNZ, which reflects "home" in all its forms and also who she is as a musician.
The programme includes pieces by New Zealand composers Gareth Farr and Kenneth Young as well as Chopin, Gershwin and Gao Ping.
"I really wanted a programme that represents me and my journey. It is something I felt really strongly about ...
"Honestly, all of the music is of pieces that I feel very deeply about and they all have their own little, you know, kind of story."
Some of the works she has played since she was a teenager and others she has played in concerts around the world. But performing them at home will be special to Jiang.
"The audiences here are always so supportive and knowledgeable, and everybody is so friendly ... every time I come back, all of my friends show up and family."
It has been 10 years since Jiang left New Zealand to study in the United States.
It is a journey that began when Jiang, whose family immigrated to New Zealand from China when she was 4, saw a pianist playing in a hotel and decided she wanted to play.
After her mother explained to her she needed lessons, Jiang began to campaign for them.
"I was really rambunctious as a child. I just kept bugging her about it and so she finally was like: ‘OK, if you do this you need to practise’.
"That’s kind of how it all started and I kept going."
For Jiang it was the music that started her journey.
"I love anything to do with music, like movies with music, or back then cassette tapes with music. I would play them over and over."
She can remember even as a young child memorising the words and re-creating the songs in her head.
"I’d be singing everywhere I went. I think I’ve always had a great connection to music."
Her first experience performing solo was when she was 5, at a weekend recital organised by her Auckland school for its music students.
"I got this little dress that was pink, like a little fairy dress, essentially. And I loved it. And I remember my mum being like, ‘get up there and have fun, and then we’ll get ice cream after’.
"So I just kind of rocked on up there and played. I had a grand old time and that was my first performance experience."
Her interest in classical music began with piano lessons as that was what was taught and there was an academic path to follow.
However, growing up she was involved in all sorts of community and youth music groups alongside performing in local piano competitions.
"I just went to school like a regular kid. I loved school.
"I had lots of interests growing up and I had lots of opportunities to try different things. Things just kept happening."
Entering the Australasian music competition scene at age 16, Jiang became one of the youngest laureates of the New Zealand Wallace National Piano Competition.
Cliburn Competition laureate judge Michael Houstoun called her a pianist of "massive range" and stated "the world is really her oyster".
Similarly at the Lev Vlassenko International Piano Competition, Jiang scored a performance with the Schumann Piano Concerto with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra — her first with any major orchestra.
Jiang decided to pursue her music career more seriously after she was invited to give her first recital as a featured soloist in "Emerging Artists at Baycourt Theatre" — a major concert series in 2012.
When it came time to decide her future, not knowing what the music scene was like overseas, she decided to apply for the top music schools in the United States.
"I didn’t really have a clear idea of what music was like elsewhere. I was just pretty good at it here, so it was like, well let’s just go over and audition and see what happens."
She was offered scholarships from most of the schools she auditioned for.
"It was just kind of like, OK, well, let’s just do this and then take it one step at a time. And I think that I still follow that kind of philosophy in my career."
She went on to study at Juilliard and gained an artist diploma from the Peabody Institute.
Jiang felt her success came from feeling strongly about music and being "validated when she was younger".
Her interest in other forms of music and collaborating with other artists has never waned.
In her junior year at Juilliard she founded NOVA: Movement and Sound, a 30-person ensemble which created concert-length collaborative works combining music and dance where the musicians moved around the stage as well.
She was invited to be a featured soloist in The Kennedy Centre’s Ballet Across America with Dance Theatre of Harlem and Miami City Ballet where she worked with choreographer Pam Tanowitz on a new commission.
"It’s cool to just explore and experiment, you know.
"I did a really cool collaboration with Miami City Ballet and Dance Theatre Harlem, where they wheeled the piano across the stage in the middle of the piece. Like whilst I was still playing. "
She also co-founded a non-profit which works in music education in rural California.
"Exploring different things also helps me find different sounds and different viewpoints which I can [use to] view all music."
Jiang, who signed with a United States young artist management agency last year, has gone on to give solo performances in Great Britain, Sydney, Indonesia, Korea and the US.
As a concerto soloist, she has followed her first experience with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra with performances with the Royal Philharmonic, a self-conducted performance of Mozart’s Concerto in E flat Major K. 271, and a performance of Franck’s Symphonic Variations with the Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra.
Most notably, she fulfilled a childhood dream of performing with her hometown orchestra, the APO, in 2022 after being invited to be a last-minute replacement. She performed Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto and received a standing ovation.
"You know, you take it one step at a time. You get one engagement and then sometimes it leads to another one. Sometimes it doesn’t."
She has also given sold-out solo recitals at the Auckland Town Hall in 2014 and 2017. Other notable performance highlights include solo performances at Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Centre, Morgan Library in New York City, Juilliard’s Morse and Paul Halls and the Sydney and New York Steinway Halls.
There is nothing really like performing in those big venues or with major orchestras, she says.
"Every orchestra has a different sound.
"It’s like an awesome experience having this awesome wall of sound come out from behind you. It’s really cool, it’s really thrilling. "
Performing with the APO or at the Auckland Town Hall, where all the important musical events in the city happened was always special for her.
"It’ll be like my second time playing with them and it’s always really fun.
"You see a lot of familiar faces in the orchestra, people that you don’t necessarily keep up with regularly.
"And it’s really awesome, everyone’s really friendly."
When she is not travelling, her base is in New York.
When she does not have an imminent gig and gets some down time she indulges in hobbies like pickleball (a paddle sport where you hit a hollow plastic ball over a net).
"Things that don’t involve sitting. I do that a lot. The other thing I’m passionate about is pickleball.
"I’ve found I need to be either on or off, that works better for me."
While excited to see a bit more of the South Island while on tour, she was gutted to not be able to take her bicycle with her or have time to visit some of New Zealand’s pickleball communities.
In New York pickleball is a popular pastime with courts always full, busy with people of all ages playing right up until it gets dark.
"You can go at any time of the day and there will be people playing pickleball that you can play with."
It is a natural pastime for Jiang who played tennis growing up but these days has to restrict what she does to protect her hands and an ankle which she badly injured a few years ago.
Luckily while the injury was severe it did not need pins to fix.
However, it did require a long recovery time with her foot elevated.
There has been no long-term damage.
"You just have to roll with these things.
"But to be honest I’m always really grateful for an excuse to stop, like pause.
"A lot of the time I’m stressing ... You don’t often know what you are going to be doing past the next few months.
"Having a moment to just pause does take the pressure off a little bit."
As a pragmatic person, she finds the uncertainty of a performance career one of the hardest things to deal with.
"So being able to just step away from that is always great."
For now, she knows the next few months will be spent in New Zealand before heading back to New York for a concert in November, but she is hoping to get some time off over the Christmas holidays.
TO SEE:
Sylvia Jiang: Coronation Hall, Bannockburn, July 28, 3pm; Lake Wānaka Centre, July 29, 7.30pm; The Whitestone Contracting Auditorium, Oamaru, July 31, 7.30pm.
