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I wish I knew something about classical music so I can say something smart about it. I'll just say that it was brilliant. Shaw Pong seemed very comfortable with being the soloist for Sibelius's Violin Concerto and focused the attention that she drew onto her violin and the ochestra. I learned of her long, sweet trek to becoming a soloist from reading the part of the program that she wrote - about the way she was introduced to and taught to play the piece, and the years of practice under the guidance of her teacher. I'm certainly thrilled for her.

In my freshman year of college, I thought she was great when I heard her practice in the laundry room, next to my dorm room, but Friday night's performance, although in a less intimate setting, was her best. The bookends of her adventurous romp through college.

But for me, every time I watch Shaw Pong play the violin, it's more than the music. I get inspired. I usually get the urge to learn a little more, or to be a little (or a lot) more serious and diligent in my pursuits. I go away never knowing what it is I should spend more of my life doing... It's not about me after all, it's mostly a statement of how you can feel and hear all the hard work she's put in and the passion that she's accumulated and thrown into her music.

I do have one misgiving about Friday night. It's not a big thing really, but try to understand: I don't think I'll ever pay just two bucks to listen to her play again.

Here's an article in the Daily Cal that I clipped:

The Daily Californian

Liu Fulfills Ambition To Play Sibelius’ String Concerto

By Garrick Von Trapp

Thursday, February 27, 2003

A tempestuous wildness will penetrate and impregnate Hertz Hall at 8 p.m. this Friday and Saturday night. With fervor, passion, and tenderness, Shaw Pong Liu will perform the Sibelius Violin Concerto accompanied by the UC Symphony Orchestra. Also on the twin bill is Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, evincing the orchestra's artistic prowess.

Liu, a graduating senior in Music with a minor in Chinese, has anticipated playing the concerto since she first listened to a recording of it.

For two years Liu has honed her skills—inuring into her fingers the most technically rigorous concerto in the repertoire and tapping down to the lees the emotive power required to really play the concerto.

Liu finds playing the concerto a "thrill;" raving about the orchestra's unique desideration for making music. "People choose to be here; there is an energy here that I never felt over at S.F. Conservatory" Liu remarks. And, perhaps it is fitting that Liu will perform her first ever solo performance with the UC Symphony.

The orchestra's conductor, David Milnes, lauds the playing and emotive prowess of Liu. "She is the best violinist to ever attend Berkeley. This concerto is the test of a violinist, and she can play it. She has a real mature approach to life and music yet she is very grounded. The audience will hear a real message; that's when the music is good." When asked why she does music, Liu responds "music moves me" an effect to be felt this weekend.

Last year Liu studied abroad in China at Beishida, a university in Beijing. While there she studied Chinese classical music and learned to play the Erhu—a two-string violin played upright like a cello.

The ethnological explorations of traditional music is not new to developing a musical self. The folk tunes and rhythms of Hungary resonate forcefully in the music of Bartok. As Milnes describes, his Concerto for Orchestra is "funky, very funky." Milnes notes that in Eastern Europe " they don't dance in four. They dance in 5 and 7." Bartok presents effortlessly to our minds these rhythms and sounds as though they are common.