76. Chaowen Ting (Girls Who Conduct)

So Chowen, would you tell us a little bit about your upbringing and how you came to your career in music making?

Hi, everyone.

I'm so excited to talk to you today and to your listeners.

I actually started playing for kids choir since I was little because my mom, she was an amateur choral conductor.

And she didn't really have any formal training.

She just loved singing.

And then I think at some point she started teaching little kids singing and she thought maybe it's a good idea to start a kids choir.

So she borrowed a classroom from a nearby elementary school.

They meet once a week in the evenings and she didn't want to hire a pianist for that.

So she just put me on this.

So I think I started playing maybe from first grade.

I was like seven years old.

So I spent many, many evenings just hitting notes and feeding the notes to the little kids.

playing the harmonies and all that.

And I got really bored because a lot of time, you know, they're just repeating and they're telling stories and

like working on basic musicianships.

That's actually how I came into this world of choral music.

But also I went to a music program that is a little bit like pre-college, but it started at elementary level.

So I was in that music program since first grade.

We are required to sing in choir.

It's one of the choruses.

So we have musicianship.

We all play in the seventh grade.

We started playing in a string orchestra and a full orchestra.

That's how I started into this choral world.

So Chowen, would you tell us a little bit about your upbringing and how you came to your career in music making?

Hi, everyone.

I'm so excited to talk to you today and to your listeners.

I actually started playing for kids choir since I was little because my mom, she was an amateur choral conductor.

And she didn't really have any formal training.

She just loved singing.

And then I think at some point she started teaching little kids singing and she thought maybe it's a good idea to start a kids choir.

So she borrowed a classroom from a nearby elementary school.

They meet once a week in the evenings and she didn't want to hire a pianist for that.

So she just put me on this.

So I think I started playing maybe from first grade.

I was like seven years old.

So I spent many, many evenings just hitting notes and feeding the notes to the little kids.

playing the harmonies and all that.

And I got really bored because a lot of time, you know, they're just repeating and they're telling stories and

like working on basic musicianships.

That's actually how I came into this world of choral music.

But also I went to a music program that is a little bit like pre-college, but it started at elementary level.

So I was in that music program since first grade.

We are required to sing in choir.

It's one of the choruses.

So we have musicianship.

We all play in the seventh grade.

We started playing in a string orchestra and a full orchestra.

That's how I started into this choral world.