Conversation with Musician Zenith (Part One)

Life Designer with Jingyu Chen

Growing up in New Zealand and being the only Asian kid in the whole school, Zenith experienced years of bully at primary school. It led her to develop an initial interest in how the human psychic and mind work, and she set herself up for pursuing psychiatry at a very early age. It’s a choice inherently driven by her intention of helping those struggling inside.
A gay year in Korea and a teaching job over there prompted her to shift the lane, and pivoted to pursue music. She completed the master degree in Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The scope of her music practice is enormous: performing cello, piano, violin, composing, singing, and teaching music ., as Zenith said, music is her life basically. Music fulfils her purpose of living, and secondarily music feeds her to sustain a living. The order can’t be flipped around because that order shaped her as a musician and framed her perspectives towards the world.
When it comes to performing music, Zenith considers it essential to incorporate intellectual pieces of information behind each piece ( a composer’s life, social environment, and political movement at that time,etc., ) into her creative act as supposed to just emoting and feeling her way through the sound. By employing both intellectual and emotional skills, a musician is equipped to deliver an individual narrative in its attached social and cultural landscape. History and human stories, therefore, are documented and archived. I also personally believe that only in this way can music legacy be inherited and evolved through generation by generation
We further address non-transactional value in music, which I consider distinguishes music from all other instrumental forces (economic power, tech power, etc.,) Because music moves our hearts! I can’t think of any other human inventions that can so easily and mysteriously activate and unleash human emotions and feelings!
Music is for ears to hear. As a human being, Zenith is humbling and compassionate in a profound sense that she acknowledges different forms of human living and struggling. Hence she will never project her feelings for music onto audiences. As a musician, her goal is only and always just to share her life passion with the outside world and to send invitations to whoever walks into her musical world. what to take in from a piece of music is absolutely individual but her genuine attempt and efforts to make an emotional connection through sounds will definitely be sensed by all her audiences! On that note, I am one of the recipients. 15 years old me accepted the YoYo-Ma tracks sent by my friend and since then music becomes my lifelong intimate friend.
Zenith’s insight into music musician education for children reveals music intricately interplays with the rest of the world ( art, architecture, fashion, history, science, religion, etc.,) Her revealing reaches my core belief that music goes beyond an exclusive component and isolated being, as well as embodying grand aesthetes that encompass a mixture of human civilization creation.
She not only offers her teaching methodology on technical training but also presents a full rich and enchanting world that sparks a 5 years natural curiosity. She made me believe that a piece can be unpackaged in a way to be linguistically understandable and emotionally relatable to a 5 year old. Music is to some extent exclusive as a career path, but musicians like Zenith reinforced my faith that Music Education plays an instrumental role in preparing children to be better emotionally equipped towards life in general . Music provides a perspective and reality to live a life with infinity.

lifedesignerwithjingyuchen