Sijia Huang (Percussion ’20)
Interviewed by Ali King
Director, Marketing and Business Development
Curtis Institute of Music
December 1, 2020
AK: You’re currently in Shenzhen, China, where you grew up. What is COVID-19 like there?
SH: I quarantined in Beijing for two weeks before flying here in early November from the U.S., and it feels like two different worlds. Shopping malls are all open and the situation is not that bad here, but everyone wears masks just in case.
AK: When do you plan to return to the U.S., given how much worse it is here?
SH: I’ll stay here for the holidays and hopefully fly back in February, but we’ll see what happens.
AK: You started a master’s program at Yale University this fall; how’s it going?
SH: It’s pretty great so far! It’s funny…compared to Curtis, Yale is more like…a school. Curtis is like a home, you know?! Yale is much bigger, and very structured. The percussion chamber music program there is the best, I think, which is why I wanted to be there after graduating from Curtis this year.
AK: When you finish the program in two years, what do you hope to be doing?
SH: I’d like to teach at the university level, so next would be pursuing my DMA. I never thought about teaching as a career path (even though my mom said I’d always be a teacher!) until my third year at Curtis. I took a social entrepreneurship class that year with Mary Javian, and chose to teach high school brass students in South Philly. I was teaching them how to play the correct rhythm, and it was surprisingly fun! I’m teaching some students now too and learning so much from it. I feel happy when I see them progress.
AK: What age are your current students?
SH: Two are in high school, and one is an adult learner.
AK: Is teaching someone older easier or harder than teaching someone younger than you?
SH: The relationship is tricky, because you can’t treat them like a student, even when they are being super respectful of you.
AK: What questions do people ask you about being a professional percussionist?
SH: When I tell people I’m a percussionist, most people think “Oh, she’s a drummer…”, which I can understand. I envy people who play drums and who can improvise. I’m trying to learn some of that now actually. People sometimes ask me, “What is percussion?” Anything that you can hit is a percussion instrument, but most of the time I play marimba, timpani, and snare drum. Percussionists have two typical career paths — orchestral performer or chamber musician/soloist/teacher, the latter of which is what I am pursuing.
AK: Had you been to the U.S. before matriculating at Curtis?
SH: I’d attended a summer program for a couple weeks at Juilliard the summer before I came to Curtis.
AK: What were some of the biggest adjustments you had to make once you became a full-time student at Curtis?
SH: Language, of course, and the intensity. I came from a regular high school, so wasn’t used to the schedule. I knew I had to make friends and get out of my comfort zone too. I had to always be at rehearsals thirty minutes early to set up, and my colleagues were all so helpful during those first few months.
AK: Tell me about your relationship to Philly.
SH: Shenzhen is only forty years old, and Philly has this historical architecture that I thought was beautiful — I fell in love with it right away. I’ve since traveled to New York City, Chicago, Miami…and always feel at home coming back to Philly. I’m Chinese and love to eat, so I liked going to Chinatown…Tai Lake was a favorite. Also Parc and The Dandelion were fun to go to with friends for restaurant week.
AK: How does Philly’s Chinatown stack up against food in Shenzhen?
SH: It’s good…enough! I like American Chinese food, and it’s funny because I order differently when I’m in the U.S. — orange chicken, General Tso’s…I mean, who doesn’t like it?!
AK: What was the most interesting non-music course you took at Curtis?
SH: I’ll never forget a liberal arts class I took about Japanese Art Cinema. I loved that class. We learned about film techniques that incorporated Japanese culture, like how certain angles correspond to relational respect. I learned how to do basic editing with Final Cut at Curtis too, which has been useful. I just finished editing a recording of a very fun piece called Madera Viento y Metal by Alejandro Viñao, which is written for marimba with an electronic backing soundtrack.
AK: You said earlier that Curtis is a home; why does it feel that way to you?
SH: I miss it. Part of the reason Curtis feels like home is due to my three amazing teachers. One of them, Don Liuzzi, invited me and other students who could not go home for Thanksgiving to his house every year. When I first arrived at Curtis, I was just this person who came from China and couldn’t speak English well, and my teachers were so welcoming and nice. I’m still in touch with them, and my friends, but I didn’t get to say a real goodbye after five years of living there. We couldn’t have a real commencement this year due to the pandemic, and I hope that happens someday.
