All Longy students present full recitals as part of their education and ongoing evolution as artists. They are charged with thinking critically about what stories they tell, whose voices to amplify, and who’s in the room for their event while also considering how to use performance spaces in innovative ways and how to truly engage audiences and create interactive music experiences.
Liang Wang is a student of John McKean.
Program Notes
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
— Mahatma Gandhi
Connecting to the sound of the harpsichord, its resonance and articulation, has given me a great feeling of harmony and naturalness at the instrument. These themes lie behind each of the pieces on this program. The style brisé (arpeggio) chords of the Louis Couperin suite and the prelude by J.S. Bach fill me with a sense of harmony with the poetry of this music and a feeling of naturalness in its execution. The dance-like rhythms of Storace’s Ciaccona and keyboard figurations of Sweelinck’s Est-ce Mars inspire feelings of natural ebb and flow. Le Vertigo, in contrast, consists of dissonant harmonies and passages that are more suspenseful than flowing. But even these special sound effects require a close cooperation with the harpsichord. Buffalo Boy’s Flute, which is a composition based on traditional Chinese music originally for piano, depicts the harmony between human beings and nature. By creating an arrangement and performing this piece on harpsichord, I hope to build an intimate connection between this western instrument and the world of Chinese traditional music.
Biography
Liang Wang is a harpsichordist, pianist and music teacher. Music, for Liang, is a special language and an artistic form of expressing thoughts and passions. Liang has a strong interest and enthusiasm in harpsichord and historical performance. She hopes that the freedom and naturalness she enjoys in early keyboard music can bring emotional release and encouragement to her audience.
Thanks to our partnership with the Massachusetts Cultural Council and their “Card to Culture” program, Longy School of Music of Bard College can offer free tickets to many of our diverse and innovative performance offerings. See the full list of participating “Card to Culture” organizations offering EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare discounts.