Music Motivates Exchange Student

As I shook hands with Chin Ning Wong for the first time, I noticed the white hard-shelled case propped against the seat beside him. He grinned as my eyes shifted inquiringly to the case. It was obviously important to him.

“Ah, yes, that’s the viola,” he said. “I’m about to head over to the music department to practice.”

Wong spends a lot of time at the music department. The 23-year-old Malaysian is an exchange student from the National Taiwan University of Arts, Taiwan's oldest art university. He is an acclaimed musician and has performed with three major orchestras in Malaysia.

He's also good at karate, photography, badminton and ping pong. He won the campus ping pong championship last month and collected the $25 cash prize. Of all those, he said he likes photography best. He won first place last year in a photography contest at his university in Taiwan.

Music will always be his first love, he said. Before moving to Conway, he worked as a freelance musician in Taiwan, playing at weddings and other special occassions. Since moving here, he tutors music students. He said he hopes to be a music teacher some day.

Wong grew up in Penang, also known as the food capital of Malaysia. He joined two of the Western orchestras in Penang - the Penang Symphony Orchestra in 2004 and the Penang State Symphony and Chorus in 2007. That same year, he was one of the first teenagers to join the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (MPYO) located in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. One year later, he transferred to the National Taiwan University of Arts to pursue a degree in music.

He discovered his love for the viola under an involuntary circumstance. At the age of 13, he pursued violin as a hobby. Four years later, his music teacher instructed him to switch to the viola. That was the turning point in his musical life.

It took him six years to master the instrument. The viola requires more arm strength because it is bigger than the violin. It also demands intensive effort from the player because the notes are spread out farther along the fingerboard and the less-responsive strings and heftier bow require a different bowing technique. Wong adapted and fell in love with the rich tones of the viola.

Dedication remains the key to his success, he said. He admits to practicing at least two hours and sometimes more than four hours every day.

“It takes two to three months to master a concerto or solo performance,” he said. “As for a sonata or duet, it takes about two months. A lot of memorizing is involved.”

Chin Ning Wong

Playing with UCA students is different than playing with students in Malaysia, he said. Our students are more expressive when they play, he said.

“The wind and brass ensembles at UCA are better than the ones back in Taiwan,” he said.

In April, Wong will be performing a Glinka Sonata in D Minor along with several other UCA musicians under the conductorship of Katherine Reynolds, faculty member of the UCA Music's Department String Division.

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