By ALLAN KOAY

Fact File
Name : Claudia Yang nee Teoh Gay Hoon
Hometown : Johor
Current Base : Asia
Occupation : Entertainment & The Arts

WHEN she was only 10 years old, Claudia Yang, nee Teoh Gay Hoon, already knew what she wanted to be when she grew up. And today, she has achieved that dream – she is an internationally renowned concert pianist famed for her heartfelt performances.  

Her journey towards that dream wasn’t an easy one. At 17, she packed up to go to Vienna, to study under some of the most prestigious teachers of the classical world. There, she lived alone, a stranger in a strange land. 

Claudia Yang: ‘You learn and develop your technique when you’re young, before you’re 20. But after that, you have to experience life and mature. Music is life.’

Today, Yang, 33, lives with her husband, Chinese businessman Yang Lingyang, and twin daughters Yang Zhi and Yang Hui, nine years old, in Beijing.  

She was born and raised in Muar, Johor, and is the youngest of three siblings. One of her brothers is cinematographer Teoh Gay Hian, who has worked with such award-winning filmmakers as Ho Yuhang and Garin Nugroho. 

Yang agrees that creative blood runs in her family. “My two brothers are very talented in painting and they used to win prizes. Unfortunately, my paintings were very lousy!” she laughed. Her other brother, Gay Hon, is a pipa player who lives and teaches music in Taiwan. 

Yang started taking piano lessons when she was five. Her teacher, Mrs Norman Tan, quickly saw what her young student was capable of. Yang is also blessed with perfect pitch, so she could listen to a piece and play it immediately. Because of her immense talent, she skipped grades and finished Grade 8 rather quickly. 

“I had a very good teacher who gave me a very strong foundation, and taught me how to play from my heart,” said Yang, who was on holiday in Kuala Lumpur recently. “My parents were also very supportive.” 

Seeing how both her brothers had gone to study in Taiwan, she had initially wanted to do the same. But she got to know famous Malaysian tenor Chin Yong, and he suggested that she go to Vienna to continue her classical studies. 

She arrived in Vienna in 1991 to study under Prof Dianko Iliew. Two years later, she was accepted into the University of Music and Performing Arts, where she was chosen by Paul Badura-Skoda to be his student. 

She practised a minimum of eight hours a day. At night, she attended to concerts, where she would queue up two hours before show-time to get student-price tickets. 

“We had group lessons and had to play from memory,” said Yang. “There were about 10 students in a class, and everyone took turns to play. Usually we spent the whole day in school when we had lessons.” 

She felt extremely homesick in Vienna, and relied on the kindness of strangers, including the wife of an American diplomat, to help her settle in the city.  

“I lived temporarily in a dorm,” said Yang. “One day, there was a group of Taiwanese women who were practising singing. I was so surprised to hear a Chinese song in Vienna. I cried and missed home so much!” 

In 1994, she received the Bosendorfer Scholarship and held performances across Europe. That summer, she went to Ukraine to study under Orysia Sterniuk, and later returned to Vienna to further study under Prof Ludwig Hoffman. She graduated in 1997 as joint best pianist of the year. 

“After graduation, I got married and moved to Hungary,” said Yang. “I remember my first diplomatic concert in Hungary, organised by the Chinese and Malaysian ambassadors. The mayor of Budapest also came to my concerts.” 

After performing the world over to great response, including before diplomats and high-ranking officials, and having collaborations with the Slovak Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic and Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Yang finally made her debut in China in 1999. 

“When I was 12, I listened to the Yellow River Piano Concerto,” said Yang. “I was very impressed by it, and wished that one day I would have the chance to perform it in China.  

“I felt China, being a big country, has great potential especially in the area of classical music.” 

Nowadays, she practises for about four to five hours a day. She said her husband, who is a former ballet dancer and acrobat, understands the commitment needed to be an artiste. 

When her children were younger, she cut down on her concert engagements because she wanted to spend as much time as she could with them. 

“Only when they were five or six did I resume my concerts,” she said.  

Are her children also interested in music? 

“I taught them when they were two years old. They are interested but they’re a bit lazy!” she laughed. 

She agrees that even for an established concert pianist like herself, the learning never ends. 

“You learn and develop your technique when you’re young, before you’re 20,” she explained. “But after that, you have to experience life and mature. Music is life. I have absorbed different cultures and this is how I learned. When you play music, you really have to touch people’s hearts. If the audience doesn’t feel anything from your spirit, then I think you’re not a musician.” 

After her first recital in Beijing in 1999, a group of university students approached her and told her that they had tears in their eyes listening to her play. 

“They told me that they thought the way I performed was very different and that it really touched their hearts,” she recalled with a smile. “I was really happy. That made it all so worthwhile for me.”