What’s the first thing that springs to mind when a friend comes to visit Edinburgh for the first time?
Possibly not: Let’s perform some difficult Mozart and Beethoven sonatas in public.
But that’s what professional violinist and local resident Sijie ‘Susie’ Chen and her friend, pianist Liang-yu Wang, did.
The two treated local residents to a pair of lovely recitals at Broughton St Mary’s Church on 8 and 9 July in support of Re-Act (Refugee Action Scotland).
Chen said the two had first met 10 years ago at a workshop in the USA. As soon as Wang said she could make a brief visit to Edinburgh this month, Chen wanted the two of them to play together.
Organisational challenge
The real challenge was organising the events, Chen says. She knew from many practice sessions with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra that her neighbourhood church, Broughton St Mary’s, would make a wonderful venue. She also wanted to team up with Re-Act, a volunteer-led charity in Calton Road, to give the recitals a broader purpose.
Finally, Chen pushed dozens of postcards through local letterboxes with event details, and notified the Spurtle.
The result was a delight for their audiences – performances of great classical music by top-level musicians right here in our community. ‘Organizing was the difficult part,’ Chen says. ‘But it has been great. We’d love to do something like this again.’
Yes, please!—Lisa Rogers
