Many students compete on the state and national level in fine arts, but few maintain the position of first in state for three consecutive years and counting. This is only one of the achievements Sophomore Dylan Wang has collected his seven years playing piano.
Wang has become first in state for piano for three years, and ranked third in the Stockholm International Music Competition (SIMC) held in Sweden. The SIMC is held from May to June, and organized by the Cultural Association Semibrevis. It began in May of 2010 with 280 participants, and has been steadily increasing in number since then.
According to him, maintaining the position of first in state was easier after the first year as he got the hang of how it worked. As for the international competition, Wang traveled to Sweden for three days.
“It was kind of like going to China, it was strange [but] we got used to it,” Wang said. “I was very nervous though.”
The registration process for these competitions was fairly simple. Competitors filled out an application consisting of a paragraph about their piano career, and three recordings. The latter allowed several attempts, though it was the portion the judges mainly focused on.
He has also contributed his musical talent to Trinity by playing the piano in Jazz Band, and playing the oboe. Balancing homework, swim, and piano practice was not difficult for him.
“You have a lot of time when you get home, right?” Wang said. “I can definitely squeeze in an hour.”
According to Wang, one of the aspects he likes about piano is the wide variety of genres that one can choose songs from.
“It’s not like you can only work on one thing. The main reason I stay with piano is because I can play what I like,” Wang said. “There were a lot of composers I really liked and learning their songs was fun.”
Personally, his favorite genre is classical and especially Chopin.
“I like fast-paced, high tempo songs that require a lot of hand movement.” Wang said. “I’m always biased towards the pieces I’m learning [but] I would choose, overall, probably First Ballade [no. 1 in G minor] by Chopin.”
He attributes his repeated success in competitions to his piano teacher and lots of practicing.
“She usually gets a bad rap because she’s really harsh and honestly, I think that’s the right way,” Wang said. “Otherwise we’re not gonna practice.”
