At 29 years old, pianist and Iva Dee Hiatt Visiting Artist & Lecturer in Music Jiayan Sun has already achieved his lifelong dream: the opportunity to perform the complete sonatas of the composer who, for him, inspired it all.
Sun, a graduate and current doctoral candidate at The Juilliard School, played and collaborated in numerous concerts as well as taught student pianists during his time at Smith. This year, he ambitiously endeavored to perform all 32 of Ludwig van Beethoven’s piano sonatas in a series of eight concerts spanning both the fall and spring semesters. Known as the “A Beethoven Cycle,” the project has drawn increasingly larger crowds consisting of faculty, students and community members to Sweeney Concert Hall. It is, perhaps, his most notable contribution to the Smith community during his time as visiting artist.
The two-year position, which has existed in partnership with Juilliard since 2009, consistently allows recent graduates from the conservatory to gain both teaching and job experience while giving the Smith community the opportunity to learn and benefit from the specific concentrations of each pianist. “It’s been a kaleidoscopic thing to experience each of these visiting artists,” said pianist and associate professor of music Judith Gordon. “Now we’re ten years into it, and it really adds so much, not just to the piano playing conversation but the musical conversation in the department.”
“A Beethoven Cycle” has continued this tradition, made all the more meaningful by Sun’s own past with the composer. “I would say that my whole love, or relationship, with music was awakened by the music of Beethoven’s,” Sun shared. “I still remember when I was 10 or 11 I was working on the ‘Pathetique Sonata’ and that was the moment that I realized that there’s just something there that’s irresistible — this bond with the art.”
The fact that Sun has chosen to play the sonatas in the order in which they were written reflects his appreciation for the arc of Beethoven’s life and career. “Through the journey of the sonatas, we come to experience something that’s rather extraordinary in the creative history of humankind. And as these sonatas were composed throughout [Beethoven’s] life, we really have the sense of journey of this one person which is mirroring something of the whole humankind, the society somehow.”
That connection to Beethoven’s journey is something he has attempted to share with audiences even though they may be skeptical of classical music’s relevance in a modern context.
Sun understands that there is a perception of classical music as exclusive “high art” that has detracted from the genre’s popularity, but to him, the importance of a connection between music and people is undeniable. “I don’t know [of] any other art form [that] could express a similar message or messages,” emphasized Sun. “Such a powerful, lucid yet elusive manner that’s among the most moving things possible.”
Nonetheless, the singular ability of classical music to reflect the human experience, coupled with its declining listenership, is a reality that weighs heavily on him. “If I’m very pessimistic, I could say maybe it’s going to die after my lifetime,” Sun said. “If we don’t do anything about it and just let it unfold, this thing is going to disappear … So I do think it’s my responsibility to do as much as I can to advocate for the art.”
Sun is an expressive performer who takes time to compose himself before each piece, seemingly internalizing the music before it even begins. Once he starts, the depth of his feeling is written plainly on his face, in his self-assured approach to the instrument, and in the way he mouths along to the music as he plays. This connection is reflected in the music itself and is capable of making an audience laugh, cry and everything in between. He paves the way for attendees to form their own relationships with the music he sincerely presents.
“His authenticity is undeniable, and that is what is needed when you’re advocating for anything,” said Gordon. “It doesn’t become a big argument about what music is better than other music – classical music versus non-classical — it’s just an artist exploring.”
Audience member Marlene Wong, head of the Werner Josten Library at Smith, also commented on the quality of his playing. “He plays from his heart with intelligence, conviction and originality,” she said.
It is with this gift that Sun has been able to make his own journey through Beethoven’s career a communal experience, not just for the Smith community but for the Pioneer Valley as a whole. “His Beethoven sonata series has galvanized the classical music community in the Valley,” said Elizabeth Harries, Helen and Laura Shedd Professor Emerita of Modern Languages at Smith. Her comment expresses a hope shared by many audience members, including Director Emerita of the Ada Comstock Scholars Program Eleanor Rothman, that the events will mark a renewed interest for classical music in the local community.
Sun has expressed his own satisfaction with the way his work has been received, but he is not complacent about the achievement.
“Yes, it’s a dream of my life that I always wanted to do this, but I never thought that it could come so soon,” Sun shared. “This thing always was, like, the thing, and — I have to say — I feel tremendously privileged that I could do it here at this moment. It’s a journey, and it’s a tremendous journey.”
At the final concert of the cycle, which takes place April 18 in Sweeney Hall, Sun will play Beethoven’s sonatas nos. 30-32. At the same time as it represents the end of Beethoven’s own journey writing his famed piano sonatas, it will mark the end of a journey for Sun and for the Smith community as a whole.
