Frank Wu, the co-winner of the top prize at the 2010 IIYM International Piano Competition, is a senior at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, IL, and a student of Brenda Huang at the Music Institute of Chicago. He has appeared with the Trio Trifecta on NPR’s From the Top and on radio station WFMT broadcasts. Frank has won prizes in the Walgreens National Concerto Competition, the Music Festival in Honor of Confucius and Illinois Music Teachers Association competitions.
Frank, how have you been since we last saw you?
Busy. Besides my practicing, I have all my college applications to complete. I am applying to places at which I can double major, with music as one of the majors. Yale is my top choice. Plus I am on my school’s Science Olympiad team. We were 11th nationally last year—this year, we hope to break the top ten. One of the events in this year’s Olympiad is called “Sounds of Music”. You have to build your own instruments, play them and then be interviewed on the physics of how the instruments work. One of our coaches is an engineer and has a machine shop in his house. This will help!
How do you find time for everything?
I pay full attention in school, so I don’t have to review when I get home. I plan my time a lot, so I can use every free moment of it, before school, at lunch and even on the bus. I usually can get all my work done before I get home, so I have time for the piano. I think the hard work is worth it. I use my time to achieve something and I’m happy with that.
I loved the way you challenged yourself with your competition program, playing some really big pieces. How do you go about choosing repertoire?
My teacher gives me suggestions, and I pick my favorites. I’m not deliberately trying to pick the hardest, but, actually, all the works she gives me are difficult. I appreciate her doing that. Because I think that, if I don’t stretch myself and get out of my comfort zone, I won’t improve. If you want to get better, you have to be a little bit uncomfortable. That’s what I think. I don’t have a favorite composer, necessarily, but I favor late-Romantic, Impressionistic and Contemporary repertoire—things that are newer in sound. And works that have a tinge of sadness to them. Right now, all my pieces are quite serious, so I’m looking forward to learning some showpieces that are lighter and more virtuosic.
The technical demands of these works are fierce. Do you have a special practice regimen that helps you learn them?
I don’t have a magical routine. The only way to make pieces work is lots of slow practice with a metronome. There’s no substitute! I was lucky to have a good foundation and did lots of pure technique when I was younger. Now, I work on technique more in the context of the repertoire. I’ve been playing hard pieces for years, so my technique has grown with that.
How did you become interested in piano in the first place?
My story is very mundane. My parents are not musicians, but at a young age I liked listening to instrumental music. Learning an instrument was a natural extension. I’m lucky that I have parents who are supportive and give me the opportunity to pursue my studies. When I started, there was a point that practicing piano was a chore and a burden. But after a while, I started to enjoy the beauty of music and started to love playing the piano. I still do.
Student Update: Chelsea de Souza (interviewed in the October 2010 IIYM E-Newsletter) attended the IIYM Summer Music Academy on an IIYM scholarship as a result of winning the MusicQuest Competition (India).
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