Chelsea Wong playing a burning piano.
Warm sunshine and the sounds of beautiful piano performances are calling us to the final weekend of Flower Piano. The beloved annual event at the San Francisco Botanical Garden is celebrating its 11th year with 11 days of music, and there’s a special performance you won’t want to miss on the final day, September 20: Tin Yi Chelsea Wong’s “DDR Spectacular – Death, Dance, Romance”. Her performance is at 1pm inside Zellerbach Garden
This won’t be Wong’s first performance at Flower Piano, it’ll be her seventh. And like all of her previous performances, expect to connect with classical music in a new way while she continues her mission to push the boundaries of what a piano performance can be. After all, her piece takes its name from the popular video game Dance, Dance Revolution.
The classical music world can sometimes feel formal, competitive, and intimidating, but Wong is interested in turning that model on its head. Her thoughts on making classical music more alive, approachable, and relevant today offer a glimpse into why she’s an artist in The Bay you need to know.
A Path to Finding Beauty and Connection Beyond the Technique
Wong’s story of becoming a pianist is simple: she dreamed big, had courage, worked hard, and found ways to connect with people through music. Born in Hong Kong, she moved to Boston and eventually made her way to the Bay Area, studying at both the Boston Conservatory and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In my interview with her she speaks about how the journey taught her the importance of people who believe in you so you can find your voice and push yourself:
“I was very lucky to have many mentors along the way, who guided my cultivation of taste, discipline, and technique - ultimately, they all showed me to keep courage and hold an open heart, especially for the people we make art for. And take risks!”
Chelsea Wong playing at Flower Piano in a previous year.
What I love about Wong is her ability to connect with people through music in a way that pushes us to find our own meaning while absorbing her work. As she explains:
“I think we can all take ourselves a little less seriously. Classical music is so potent because it’s been distilled through centuries, but I find the pieces that are truly transcendent, are not the ones showing off cleverness or technique. That’s my filter, and what remains… and this has been relevant my entire life, but has now become intensely true, are the pieces that explore the themes that bind us as humans - our struggles to survive, find beauty, through death, through sorrow, through joy, dreams and myth, even idealized romance has a place. That is the criteria for the pieces I play now.”
Setting The Piano Free by Taking it Outside (Sometimes With Fire!)
Flower Piano is not the first or last time Wong will have brought the piano out of the concert hall and into the outdoors. Her musical performances blur the boundaries between music, visual art, performance, and even spectacle, including the time she famously played pianos that were literally on fire. Wong pushes us to see the instrument in a new way and connect with it in a way we haven’t seen or experienced before… so we can feel something new and find out own way to connect with the music. She talked to me more about this when looking back at a time where she made herself a promise to bring a piano back to The Palace of Fine Arts:
“I had a college boyfriend who plays violin. During spring break, I took him to The Palace of Fine Arts, and he played his violin so beautifully under the rotunda, the acoustics were glorious. I was quite envious, and said to myself, one day I’ll bring a piano here. 7 years later, I did, 2 days before people were allowed masks off outdoors. I sold an Ethereum to pay for the concert, too! Luckily right before the crash. There is a certain conflict between this very sensitive instrument which is a marvel of engineering, and how difficult yet beautiful it is for it to exist outdoors. We think of the piano as this fragile instrument that we must protect at all costs by keeping them indoor, tuned to perfection, but even then - after a hundred years, a piano will eventually come to the end of its life. And sometimes pianos live a life indoors where they are protected and never played on, and that’s so sad - I wanted to see them live a full life outside, even if it is short lived, but at least for a moment, it can be free, in the wild.“
Living Our Brightest Self at Any And Every Moment
I was on the phone with Wong for a while, just chatting about musical inspiration and how she came to be where she is today. She said something that really stuck with me. She described her artistic philosophy as “living our brightest self at any and every moment.” It felt like something I really needed to hear at that moment in my own life, and I realized then that Wong is more than just a musician…she has a lot to share beyond the music she creates. She went on to talk about how we must use our courage and bravery to confront our fears in order to really connect and inspire others.
“I think when we act from a place of fear, we end up losing out on realizing who we really are. Even though I’ve been performing piano for almost 30 years, I still get nervous! And I’m grateful for that, because it means that every time I go on stage, I get to confront myself and make a choice, to either act from fear, or act from an open heart of love. And choosing to act from love, is a decision we have to make in every waking moment, in full awareness of our mind-body connection, which I choose to practice through piano music making. I hope my events inspire others to confront their fears and find their truth.”
After Flower Piano, Catch Wong and Her Friends at “Atelier Kromatica”: SOMA’s Underground Performance Space
We’re not all going to be able to make it to the final day of Flower Piano, so we’re lucky that Wong has her own performance spot which is an art space called “Atelier Kromatica”, where you can catch her playing regularly:
“Atelier Kromatica is on a quiet street off Folsom and 5th, in the heart of SoMA, a block away from Moscone Center and Yerba Buena Gardens. It is an experimental art house, hosting not only classical music concerts, but also all genres of music - jazz, folk, contemporary, tango, as well as immersive art shows, noise and visuals, rock bands, clown shows, guided body movement classes, sound baths, etc. We are building towards hosting piano sculptural workshops, for people to build a piece of art that they get to take home. We list all our events on our website (www.atelierkromatica.com), and post on Instagram.”
Wong playing at Atelier Kromatica
I’m loving that we’re seeing more and more of these kinds of third spaces popping up, where artists are creating their own little hubs for bringing people together. They’re hosting regular performances, workshops, art shows, and all kinds of creative gatherings that give people a reason to get out of the house and connect. At Atelier Kromatica, expect performances that push the boundaries of what you might expect from a typical night of music. It’s the kind of space where musicians and artists can experiment, and that’s part of the fun.
“There are many concerts every month hosted at Atelier Kromatica. I’m excited for John Brothers Piano Company at the end of this month, and Ardea Vocal Ensemble in October; the next performance at AK that I’m playing in is titled Frequency Frontiers on October 22nd, alongside a few other musicians that are pushing the boundaries of music making on their instruments, or by inventing new instruments - Roziht Eve, Chris Guichet, and Dan Gorelick. I will be presenting the Piano Liberado and I’m so honored to be working alongside these amazing musicians.”
Where can you find Tin Yi Chelsea Wong and Atelier Kromatica
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Catch Tin Yi Chelsea Wong at Flower Piano on September 20th at 1pm inside Zellerbach Garden
Flower Piano Tickets right here.
Tickets are an affordable $18 for a day pass to the event but also FREE for San Francisco residents, Gardens of Golden Gate Park members, children 4 and under, veterans and active-duty military and Museums for All participants.
