Donyale Renee (USA), Fred Grenade (Mauritious), Carol Chang (Taiwan), Antonio Ximenez (Spain), Eric Essama (Cameroun)
LADY C - Carol Chang in Shanghai, China Interview by Mo Xing (December 19, 2018) MX: Hi, Carol. Tell us, how did you come to music as a child? CC: I was born into a very musical family. My mom was a professional singer. She's still singing. My grandfather played a little bit on the piano. So, when I was born, there was a piano in the house. Piano was my favorite toy and I heard my mom sing. Growing up, I had a lot of opportunity to see my mom perform. Since fifth grade, I studied pop and classical piano at the same time. I studied with my mom's piano player from her band. From a very young stage, I had the experience of how the professional musicians performed. I had a lot of exposure to them. I set up my goal to be a professional musician from very young. MX: Did you study theory? CC: Yes, I did. At 13 years old, my whole family moved to Los Angeles. I met a Taiwanese jazz musician who also had moved to America and was performing in Los Angeles. I met him through a piano store because we were selling pianos in the day time. That's how we found out he was a very famous Taiwan pianist. So, my grandfather took me to study with him. MX: What was his name? CC: Jimmy Wang. He was very famous in Taiwan, playing jazz in the sixties.
Spring 2019 - 50
