Are you interested in enjoying a storytelling event that uses only piano music as its language for the spring season? In recent years, there has been significant news in the piano world: the discovery of an unpublished Waltz manuscript by the renowned Polish composer Frédéric Chopin, created about two hundred years ago, found in the storage room of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. This is a piano work that has hidden for nearly two centuries after its composition and was only unveiled recently. It is true that this piano piece contains an intriguing story in its background, content, and transmission. In fact, every musical work has some narrative to it, with these stories being created, constructed, discovered, and researched by people from various identities and perspectives. Thus, music can serve as a vehicle for stories; when music is performed, the musician often becomes a storyteller.
Walter Benjamin’s “The Storyteller” suggests that every story inherently contains certain knowledge and wisdom that can guide people on how to live their lives. Storytellers have the ability to share experiences. Their storytelling is derived from their personal experiences or stories they have heard, and then transformed; ultimately, this becomes the experience of the audience, merging the storyteller’s and the audience’s experiences. Therefore, listening to and telling stories is an activity of co-constructing meaning, that passed down through generations. However, the fast-paced rhythm of daily life often causes people to focus on messages and overlook stories, even when stories are noticed, they may not be thoroughly savoured. Fortunately, stories have always existed; they simply lie hidden, waiting for people to discover them, much like Chopin’s Waltz.
Friends of Sylvie Piano Arts will hold the 2025 Spring Concert “Our Piano Stories” on 9th February, 2025 at 2:30PM at the Recital Hall, 8/F, High Block, Hong Kong City Hall. We hope to share wonderful music and connect people through piano performances. Initially people may not grasp the essence of music, but upon listening again, we become part of it. As performers and audience members, while we appreciate the music works, we are not just facing them, we are also immersed in them, and becoming part of their story. Long time ago, people would sit on the ground around a campfire listening to stories; now, let us gather around the piano, sitting side by side, sharing musical moments, weaving “Our Piano Stories” together on and off the stage.