Hao Yuan: Preserving the Childlike Wonderment of Music
Yuan was a member of the Gold Star Awarded 2012 Tianjin Violin Exhibition and Competition string quartet.
Written by Tom White
A little girl sings in her kindergarten class, emoting enthusiastically. She isn’t focused on technique or perfect pitch, just the feeling and pure joy of experiencing the song. This is the moment that stands out from all others in Hao Yuan’s mind when she thinks of music because this is when her love affair with it began. The purity of that moment has lasted decades long and seen her growth into an internationally active musician. Awards in both her homeland of China and in the United States highlight her achievements. Determined to empower others to follow in her footsteps, Hao often works with organizations like the Noel Pointer Foundation to perform and instruct in the public school system as well as with private students. Hao Yuan is a champion of classical music in a world which seems bent on AI template recreation of whatever the current trend is; that’s because music is about the feeling it creates and how it allows for communication across languages and cultures. Yuan knows this because her own career proves it to be true.
As a member of a Gold Star Awarded (2012 Tianjin Violin Exhibition and Competition) string quartet, Yuan gained recognition in China and was invited to join the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra as a member of the first violin section. Her work with the orchestra and string ensembles there led her to performances with ensembles in Europe and eventually America in 2023 and performances at the Techne Music Festival in Pennsylvania and Cleveland Institute of Music. Enchanted by the U.S., Ms. Yuan notably has taken part in performances with the Modus Operandi Orchestra and a “The Best of Broadway” Collaboration with Terry Barber (known for his work with Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer) who had been drawn to her arrangement and performance of “All I Ask of You” from The Phantom of the Opera. She confesses, “It’s proof of the importance of an online presence. Terry saw my performance of this piece on YouTube and invited me to collaborate in the concert project. For me, this was an exciting moment because it connected something very personal—my appreciation for that music—with a new professional collaboration.”
While pursuing a vibrant career as an international violin and viola artist, Ms. Yuan is mindful of the vital importance of “paying forward” what music has given her. Garnering recognitions like her win at the Lilian Fuchs Chamber Music Competition and the top prize in Chamber Music Competition for excellence in collaborative chamber repertoire in Tianjin China, attracts the attention of aspiring musicians. Her ultimate goal is to solidify the lineage of her precious music as Yuan states, “In addition to performance, I am deeply engaged in pedagogy and public-facing music education. My work extends beyond traditional concert stages into nonprofit institutions and community venues, where I contribute to expanding access to classical music. This combination of high-level performance, cross-instrument specialization, and educational outreach defines the scope of my professional identity. In my experience, teaching is not only a process of sharing knowledge, but also a process of deepening my own understanding of music and performance. When I explain musical ideas to students, I often discover new insights about my own playing and artistic perspective. There have been several moments in which teaching revealed something important about my own musical journey.”
The state of being organic defies perfection. In a digital world, the analog becomes more precious. Humanity discovers beauty in difference rather than uniformity. What can be a better symbol for this than a musician like Hao who, like so many generations before her, finds something unique in works of the legendary composers? Hao Yuan has honed her own unique qualities and stresses to the next generation of musicians that they should not copy her but find their own means of expressing what is most important to them, all while seeking the joy that developing a relationship with an instrument can offer anyone regardless of their abilities.
Photo Credit: Hao Yuan
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