Pianovan Adventure, Nov. 15-20: Report

My pianovan report in Japanese is here. 日本語での復習とこれからはこちらでお読みください。

Piano is the way I explore the world and reach out to people. There is one problem – it’s stationary. Moreover, it’s expensive. When there were ideas of my going to Burundi or Cambodia, or to play concerts for schools with no art or music program, the lack of the piano prevented me from delivering the power of music that I am convinced can help. That’s when I encountered this pianovan.

WHAT is a pianovan?

WHY pianovan for “Dr. Pianist”?

• Delivering the power of music to isolated/underserved communities
• With the right training and mobility, musicians can serve as second responders to areas struck by disasters
  • Music reduces our stress hormone, regulates our pulse/blood pressure/breathing and mitigates our perception of pain, both emotional and physical.
  • Music can comfort many at once, while the medical care professionals tend to one patient at a time.
• Traveling performing artists are more ecological.
  • Mobile performers reduce carbon footprints than theaters/concert halls that require the audience travel to them.
  • Communal musical experience will enhance the local community solidarity. It can also stimulate the local economy.

The Purpose of The Pianovan Adventure This Time

• As a trial run: to test the validity of my ideas listed above.
• As a field research
  • to assess the conditions and needs of the members of the isolated/underserved communities first hand
  • to explore how to implement the power of music to most effectively address some of our challenges.
• To present a new prototype of musical outreach to other musicians, music administrators and presenters

Please watch the 6+ min video, compiling highlights from my week with the pianovan.

The Pianovan Itinerary: The videoclips were taken from these events.

• Tues 16th, 1-3 Self Help Hunger, Jasper P. Driver Park in Oakland, CA
  • Providing free meals, legal advice, health services and community engagements to the underserved members of North Oakland and South Berkeley neighborhoods.
• Wed 17th, 10:30-1 In front of SockPop Shop Berkeley, College Ave.
  • My friends from UC Berkeley and Oakland stopped by to listen and engage in musical discussions.
• Wed 17th, 4-5:30PM SAVE-dv (Safe Alternative to Violent Environment for victims of domestic abuse)
  • Fremont Main Library Parking Lot:
  • Promoting the organization and its missions to its local community.
• Wed 17th, 7:30-8 Full Moon Party in Oakland, CA
  • Showcasing the pianovan and Dr. Pianist’s mission in between the Moonlight Sonata, Clair de Lune, and other pieces by Chopin, Scriabin, etc.
• Thurs 18th from 4-5:30 California College of the Arts
  • Fall 2021 Lecture Series, First Year Studio Program
• Thurs 18th from 6-6:30 Street Soccer USA
  • “Improving health, education, and employment outcomes for the most disadvantaged Americans by using sports to transfer the skills necessary”

Highlights of Encounters through the Pianovan Adventure

After one event, a woman started telling me her life stories, hugged me, and wept. A shy five-year-old girl sat on the curb facing the pianovan, eyes wide open and motionless as I played. She whispered her comments and questions to her mother’s left ear after each piece. There was a chance passerby, a high school sophomore, on the way to his part-time work. He stopped his bicycle to listen to my Chopin and Godowsky, and then asked me many questions. He was moved by the serendipitous encounter, he said, and realized how there were “more important things in life than to be on time for work,” making the older attendees – and myself – burst out in laughter. I don’t know if we were laughing because we agreed with his revelation, or because we were glad we were not his co-workers. I think it was both.

At one event, I took a break in the middle of my presentation. Some of the attendees asked if they could present their music to me and their community. A woman sang a gospel song. Two men rapped their own original verses about social injustices. I said how I envied their musical identity. I shared how I struggled sometimes to feel authentic as an Asian classical pianist. After the event, an African-American man pulled me aside and told me how I did not have to say what I said about my musical identity; how I did not have to even feel it. Because, he said, all music are the same, like all people are the same. He shifted something important for me with his words.

I was playing on streets, surrounded by noise. Garbage trucks. Babies wailing. Cell phones ringing. However, surprising number of people said the same thing in different words. How I provided an oasis in the middle of all the city noise. How my playing beautified the noises they were so accustomed to ignoring. How the contrast between the noise pollution and my music brought about a sense of calm.

My event at California College of the Arts started at 4PM on a chilly Thursday. The sun was setting behind dreary gray clouds, but the dozens of students around the pianovan did not budge, even when it started drizzling. They listened intently to my music and my words, some of them sitting down on cold concrete, asking me questions, sharing their thoughts and impressions. Many of them had entered college during the pandemic, baring the brunt of the uncertainties and anxieties. However, during the hour we shared around the pianovan, none of that seemed to matter.

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I must also comment on the overwhelming support I received from my own personal friends and acquaintances. My schoolmates from well over a decade ago. My audience members from my past concerts in various cities. My virtual acquaintaces from social media and the virtual worlds. Friends and colleagues I’d met at conferences… So many responded to my social media post, and blog entry about my upcoming pianovan adventure. They helped me spread the word, introduced me to organizations and community leaders in their network, lending me audio equipment, hosting me, feeding me, etc. Towards the middle of my stay in San Francisco, I started receiving invitations from my indirect contacts. The outpouring of support helped me realize that people are eager to be a part of the solutions to our inequity and divisions, but are left unsure as to how. The pianovan offered one possibility.

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Testimonials

• “Thank you for bringing your calming medicine to our park” – Self-Help Hunger founder, Auntie Frances
• “I simply loved the deep discrepancy between the [sound] environment and your music. Instead of [the noise] diminishing the impact [of the music], I feel that it made it even more valuable. Because it’s in the streets and in the places plagued by pollution that we need such therapies the most.” Self-Help Hunger community member
• “She introduced one of the pieces by talking about veterans of the Great War who lost an arm, and the pieces for one hand commissioned for them — and then played one; it was stunning.  She uses such stories and pieces to reach those, such as people in rehabilitation themselves or other difficult circumstances, to inspire and encourage them.”  
• ”…a heart-warming gift to our community. …so memorable …an important seed in their hearts as artistic practitioners” – California College of the Arts

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Details on the van itself

Details on the Piano in the Van

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• For this particular pianovan, the Yamaha upright was bolted into the van, behind the driver seat. I expected the piano to go grossly out of tune by the end of the week, but the tuning remained remarkably stable. I am pretty sensitive about the instruments I play, but this Yamaha remained thoroughly enjoyable to play for me.
• The piano had an internal microphone, and a silent piano function, leaving the option of projecting and listening only to the synthesized sounds. This added feature gave the additional option of amplifying the sound of the piano to outside of the van. It also allowed me to control the sound volume, according to the sound environment of each location.
• The owner of this particular pianovan designed it for his own personal piano practice, not for performances, so the pianist faces away from the opening of the van, and the audience. If I were to play on this pianovan again, the following steps may improve my connection with the audience outside of the van.
  • Placing a mirror on top of the piano for the pianists to see the audience.
  • To capture the pianist with a camera and project the image onto a wall nearby, to provide the profile and front view of the pianist for the audience.

…and WHAT NOW?

• In order to offer long-lasting food for thoughts, a catalyst to reframe how they relate to sounds and music in their lives, to really help, I have the following questions to make my events more meaningfully impactful.
  • Can a significant impact be made with just a one-time event? To reinforce my message, and also to see if any of my message stuck, I would like to go back in the spring and re-engage with the communities I visited during this pianovan adventure.
  • Something for my participants to take home, a memorabilia of our time together, and a word or phrase to reinforce the importance of listening, and communal music: a flyer, postcard, magnet, T-shirt, etc.
    • These can also be given to people who are walking by, so they can look up what I am doing.
  • A few standing signboards to encourage people to stop, listen and engage, with a little information about the pianovan and “Dr. Pianist”
• Find a non-profit organization that can act as my fiscal sponsor, an umbrella organization, to make large donations tax-deductible for my donors.
• Start applying for grants and aides, and look for corporate sponsors, so I can do bigger and better things for broader impact, with sustainability
• Is pianovan indispensable to my “Dr. Pianist” mission?

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Lessons I Learned from this Pianovan Adventure

• To serve the underserved communities, I cannot be engaging only with them. As a pianist, I am uniquely positioned with access both to the have’s and have-not’s. I would be more useful as a bridge between these two groups.
• I also presumed that the greatest needs for the healing power of music must be in the underserved communities. But this pianovan week made me realize that regardless of your income level, we all need music, like we all need affection. Music is a spiritual nourishment.
• In order to be of service with lasting impact, I need to be committed to the cause for a long time. This requires sustainability: my own wellness, safety, and personal/artistic growth. I thought that in order to be of service, I had to make personal sacrifices and compromise. Now I realize that martyrdom is futile, and ultimately self-serving.

HOW TO JOIN FORCES with DR. PIANIST!

• MONETARY DONATION
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