Tong Wang: Windwood Music Festival

She has performed at the Lincoln Center and toured the world, but Tong Wang’s most important stage is a cul-de-sac in Airdrie. As a concert pianist, educator, and co-founder of the Windwood Music Festival, Tong is on a mission to replace the scarcity of elite art with an overflow of community belonging. This is a story about the power of the big open sky, the science of "cute" music, and why world-class chamber music belongs to everyone.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 0:00

So my nickname is actually Dr. Cute. Dr. Cute. Because they call me Podcast Cute.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

I think that's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:06

All right. Huh? They I'm podcast cute. Yes. Not Dr. Cute.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Podcast Cute. Yeah. Okay, great. We can we can be bond over that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Air Dree Inside. I am your host, Chris Glass, and I am with Tong Wong from the Winward Music Festival. Tong, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Yeah, thank you for having me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

And we're here at uh the microgreens facility once again, and we're surrounded by some of the best smelling and best-looking products that I've seen in a long time. So welcome to the fresh air. Yes, yes, it's beautiful. So tell me a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Well, I introduce myself as someone who wears many hats. Like if you go on my website, it says pianist, etc.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

So I am a touring concert pianist. I just came back from a solo tour in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Okay. And at the other on the other hand, I am also involved with the Windwood Music Festival. So I co-direct that. And I have a lot of other side projects as well. Right, including a doctorate? Yes. I finished recently my doctorate.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

So it's doctor Tom Wong. That's what I should.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Sorry. I need to add that title. I'm gonna call you doctor the whole time now. Oh no, it's yeah, I'm like a doctor of music. So excellent. So when did you start playing the piano? When I was before I was four, I think. Okay, wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

So how how did that go? How did that process? Has it always been a love?

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Or yeah, I I love telling this story because I think I've always been very extroverted and loved entertaining people. So I would any chance I would go on stage to sing and dance. And so I just loved any kind of expression and art. And then because I was also a huge tomboy, my parents decided, okay, something that she needs to sit down for. So rather than dancing and running around and injuring myself, and I thought the piano was the biggest instrument because my everyone else in my family played like violin or something, and I was like, I'm gonna have the biggest instrument. So that was the coolest one to choose.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

So I am full full disclosure, I am one of the biggest fans of the piano. I can't play it myself, but I find it to be one of the best instruments. Uh, my my favorite artist of all time, all time, all time. I've seen him in concerts so many times as Billy Joel. And uh you know, I was at one concert in Toronto, I had second row tickets, which was amazing. And you got to see him up front. Legendary. Yeah, 100%. Oh, what a memory. And he played a song, I think it's Summer Highland Falls, and there's 20,000 people there. And to see him just get lost, it was only him and me in the whole place, it seemed. Yep, it was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

It has that kind of magic. Like, even just coming back from this tour, I would still be alone in the practice room and I would start tearing up because I just have this realization like I love piano so much. Yeah, it's so simple.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

Yeah, but just so beautiful. Okay, so from three years old, when did you realize you were good at it? Right? Because I started a lot of things that I was never good at and I had to find my own lane.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Right.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Uh, but you started at three and learned that this is for you.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Yeah, I I mean, back I started back in China, so I did get a lot of encouragement from teachers and I did competitions, and then there's that thrill of like being on stage and like winning a few prizes. So that was when people thought, oh, okay, that's something that Tong's good at. But it wasn't like it was never a thing I thought I would do professionally until like much later. Very cool.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

And then uh as uh as you grow up, when did you move to Canada?

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Yes. Well uh my family immigrated in 2004, so I think I was about like eight, nine years old.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

And what was that like? That must have been an experience as an eight-year-old.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Right. So uh we first immigrated to Edmonton. Okay. And before that, I thankfully had a year when my mom was doing her master's, I learned English actually in England, in Norwich. Oh, absolutely. So that was harder because I remember crying on the first day of school because I just couldn't speak the language. But coming to Canada, it was really exciting, I guess, because it was like no matter what happened, I was with my parents, and then we just like figured it out and we lived in the basement and the weather. I I just remember um it's so different from China. There was this core memory of us trying to walk to West Cementon Mall. And it was like, we're like, oh, it's fine, but it like three hours in, we're like, there's no sidewalks, it's in the middle of the winter and no one walks here. You can't just walk to them. And it was like such a cultural shock, the winter, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Yeah, I I have uh a really good friend who uh married a girl, he's Lebanese and he met a girl in Lebanon and they ended up getting married here. But on the day she flew into Canada, the very first time coming to Canada, it was plus 35 in Lebanon and minus 35. Oh my gosh. Like I would never get back on, I'd never step off the plane. That's uh that's crazy. Okay, so now you're in Canada. Yes. You're in Edmonton, and and now what?

SPEAKER_01 5:40

What's the next step? Uh yeah, so I uh I went to let's see, grade school and went to Victoria Performing Arts High School. Um and then it was around high school that I decided, okay, this is maybe a really big passion that I could make into a career. So that was I had I was very lucky to have some wonderful teachers and support from my family. Um, and then that's where I decided to go to conservatory for music.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

That is such a cool journey.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Okay, so now the Windward Music Festival uh has been a staple in our city for for a long time now. Uh, and I know um, like I said, we have a common friend who uh shout out to Peggy on the show. Uh one of Erdry's best volunteers and a real champion for the arts, but uh she can't sing the praises of this festival enough. And she tells me all the time about the wonderful things about it. So tell me about the festival and tell me why you wanted to start it.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Right. I I'm I mean, we've told this origin story a million times, and it's still my love letter to the city and to the people, and I'll say it again and again. It's there's several reasons. So, first of all, I think I fell in love with the city because as immigrants and as people who moved around so much, it was the first place that my family felt more like this was home.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

And and I we actually moved here after I went to college. So at first I was only coming back for the holidays, but even then I noticed there's an energy here that I adore. Like people say hi to each other, yeah, and it's very warm, it's very friendly, it's very, very accepting, even different than just like a minton and Calgary. Very, very different. And second of all, I really fell in love with the sky and the nature. Like people don't think of like, okay, airgy for a beautiful scenery nature, but I tell our resident artists, like, even today I was going for a walk and I started like crying because it's like there's something that the big open sky or elevation, it does something to like open your heart. And like when I'm burnt out, you know, performing in Montreal or something, I come home and it's like you're allowed to feel things and you feel okay, and you can process your emotions. And it's like, okay, so that's my love letter to the city. And then I realized what is a way I can give back to the city with something I love. And I saw a need because there isn't actually at that time the kind of music I sort of specialize in, classical music and chamber music. And I thought what would be a beautiful way to build community is to share this music, very, very high-caliber classical music right here in our home.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

Yeah. You know, I'm starting to see Airdrie. So my wife is the president of Airdrie Culture Fest, and uh, I'm on the board. So I I've been exposed to uh a bunch of different uh takes on mus music and and arts and culture. But one thing I'm really seeing here in Airdrie is this transformation in the summer to a festival city. Like there's something going on every month, every every week, it seems at Nose Creek or Birchchurch Theater. So tell me about the origin of uh the festival.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

So you get it started. How was the first one?

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Wow, okay. I have a million people to thank because it was it was kind of nuts how we jumped into it. The first festival, the pilot, we call it, was actually in the fall. So even though it was we had this concept of we really love, you know, the orange colors, the fall Thanksgiving season. Yeah. So we had this chunk of time where uh we thought it was in October and let's just try it out. And we only had about like a month or so to plan it, which when you're planning a festival of this scale, it should take like a year or two years, right? But we sort of approached the city, the parks department, and even back then, Heather and Kristen and these people, they just immediately showed up, like immediately called and gave us sort of support and said, how can we help? And like we were just really, really blown away by how warmly the city took this up. And um, that first season, you know, we had our opening concert at Nose Creek Amphitheater. And even though, you know, it was just starting the seeds, but there was such an excitement and the community just they just showed up. And uh when when you're starting something like that, it's mostly a volunteer basis, so yeah, it comes from the spirit of the people.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

Yeah, yeah, I I'm uh familiar with that kind of entrepreneurial spirit when you when you get there. Um you mentioned uh our our now mayor, Heather, and our now counselor Kristen. Um I do love how the arts seems to be getting supported on a level that I haven't seen before. Talk to me about the support.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yes. Um, wow. From many different parts of the community, of course, there's the city council has been they've really sort of recognize the value of what this can bring to our city and our children and just the audiences. Like, I always think how can you fall in love with something if you don't, if you've never seen it? So that's why we come to the community and go to the parks and go to the breweries. And that's the other part of the support is the small businesses. These places really opened their arms. Like our first years, you know, like Atlas Brewery and like now 948 has been one of our biggest supporters, like Kyle and all these people. Like we we know people on a name-by-name basis, you know. We go to like Good Earth, we did a concert at um uh Ground Press and the library, and so many different parts, like the library staff is amazing, right? Like from even the old library, just the way they welcomed us. So there's the city support, um, you know, they even in terms of financial support, they tried their best to like really make things possible for us.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

And and then there, and then there are the volunteers like Peggy and then Lois, and our like this doesn't happen without a team like this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

So how many performers uh traditionally appear at the festival?

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Right. So how our platform works is we always invite five international artists. So there's a core team of us that we are also professional performers. So we we call ourselves artists admin, which is about four or five people that stays the same. And then we invite every year a new group. So there's five people all of from all around the world. They're usually incredible artists we select through an application process, and then they come together and they come to Air G to rehearse and to like cook together and then to perform and go into the community. Oh, that is so cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

Where have uh where uh have you got some performers uh come? How far have they been traveling from?

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Right. So a lot of them study in Canada and the States, but um last year um I think uh where is Amir from is it Colombia perhaps? I I don't want to miss like get my sort of and definitely from like Europe. We've have residents from a lot of different parts of uh Asia, like China, Korea. Um, and yeah, they're all doing their like doctorates and masters at really esteemed sort of music schools. So I every time I'm shocked, like the caliber that we're able to gather here in Airdrie, like even in a professional classical music world, it's really the best of the best that you can hear.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

That is uh so inspiring to hear that this is going on in our city and that we're a destination for these sort of events. Uh tell me about your new title. So it's not every every day you become a doctor. So this is fun. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

So my nickname is actually Dr. Cute.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

Dr. Cute. Because they call me podcast cute.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

I think that's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

All right. Huh? They I'm podcast cute. Yeah, Doctor Cute.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Podcast cute.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Yeah. Okay, great. We can we can be. We can bond over that. Yeah, because my dissertation is a very new subject that hasn't really existed before because my study is in cute music. Cute music, okay. Yeah, so many genres of music that have this cute aesthetic. So there are things I look at like animation, Japanese animation. There's a genre called kawaii metal, which is like cute metal music, like these cute little girls singing heavy metal. And then there is also lo-fi music, and then there's classical music as well. So my whole dissertation is on different kinds of dark and light cuteness. So my final project was actually people love this because I just toured this piece. Is it's a horror anime opera. So it's called A Manic Ride Through Lollipop Hell. A Manic Ride through Lollipop Hell. Okay. So it's like cuteness, but also kind of horrific and kind of eerie and kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

See, and and this is uh the best part about music is just when you think you've heard it all, oh no. Somebody innovates, right? There's always a prince who who changes the sound or moves around it. Who are your favorite artists?

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Wow. I mean, yes, there's there's classical stuff that um I love when people ask my favorite composers. I I really love the late Russian romantics like um Ruckmine and of Skriabin. But then in terms of sort of indie popular music, a lot of my playlist is maybe because of my research is Japanese anime music.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Um, and I mean, I I love the like iconic stuff like Joni Mitchell, I always go to. And recently, I mean, what have I been listening to? Like, like even just in Nova Scotia, I found an album of John Denver. Yes, and because oh, this is hear this, it was so uncanny because I was so homesick. And then there was his album called Windsong. And that's but that's like originally was gonna be oh wait, was it Windwood or Windsong? I think it's Windsong. Yeah, it's Windsong. He has an album called Windsong, and that was what we were originally gonna call the festival. Wow, the neighborhood circle. The neighborhood is is Windsong. Yeah, so we called it Windwood because my house is on Windwood Grove.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

Ah, okay, perfect. Well, that makes it an even a better local uh local connection here. Excellent. Yeah, you know, I have uh I have a five-year-old and two three-year-old twins, uh boy girl twins, but the two girls have been obsessing over K-pop demon hunters right now. Oh my god. I'm starting to get into K-pop.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

K-pop, k-pop, that's a rabbit hole, yes. And it is a rabbit hole because it's an amazing song, though.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

It is like, but that whole movie is full of great music.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Yes. Though that writing is like we professional musicians, we've like dissected it like harmonically, and we're like, this is a geniusly written song.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

There was at one point uh on the Billboard Top 20, which you know, not easy to get on. They had six tracks that all got on the the top 20 at one point. That's insane. I've never seen anything like that. Yep. So yes, my IPop, yes. Listen to Golden about a hundred times. So a thousand times now. My Spotify playlist got hijacked for sure. Yeah. Excellent. Okay, so and then there's an event coming up on March 15th.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Right. Yes. This one is gonna be so wonderful. It's a big community celebration, and we love it when we have the funding to make these events free. So this one, there will be amazing music and lots of feast because that's how we do it. Um, and this time, because the winter festival is very focused on education. Yeah. Um, so what we're doing is this year we're partnering with um the Strings Academy, which is very new in energy here. They're an after school strings program run by these two wonderful professional musicians, Kimwell and Grace. And so we're gonna go work with some of those kids. So they are gonna play in that concert with some of us guest artists. Oh, wow. And a segment will be the masterclass students. So these are the older students that we've worked with for many, many years since the beginning. So like three, four years. And then the Windwood Trio will play something, and then Alicia is also gonna sing something with us um at the soprano. Uh, and then we're gonna have a little quintet finale. I think there might be some radio head we're playing.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Oh, excellent. Speaking of dark and twisty, there you go, radiohead. That's great. And where can we find out information on the event? What's what's it called on May 15th? Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Um, what are we calling it? It's like, oh, what is the title? I I don't remember. Like, we're just calling it like sort of the community concert at Inspire. It's at the library. It's at the library. Um, but basically, if you go to our website, Winwood, um, Winwood Music Festival, yeah. Okay, and then it will be there. There's a sign-up form so we can keep track of um how many people, because it's not a super large space. We're having it in the presenter space. Oh, excellent. That's a sign up.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

That's a great venue. And yes, uh, I will definitely be there. It sounds like a great night. Yes. Um what's the future hold for the festival? What uh in 10 years when we're celebrating what, the 15th anniversary or the 14th? What do you envision this being?

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Yeah, that's a beautiful question, too. I mean, it's already pretty surreal that this summer is gonna be our fifth version, which it seems like just a baby that you know we like are taking care of and already it's building trust and it's building sort of a legacy, and the community loves having us back. And us, our roles as the founders is our hopes is that it becomes it becomes the communities, that it could be sustainable like almost without us. Yeah. Um, of course, there's the financial aspect that it could keep keep on running with more, you know, resources, but it's not about making it bigger. We don't want to say necessarily, ah, making bigger as in like uh fancier or bringing in more artists, or because the the vision of it is it's it's very special because of its intimacy for the musicians. We would love for you know the word to get out more and to see more audiences in our, especially our our like outdoor shows and even our main like opening concert in Birchchurch Theater. And we'd love for people to I think the goal is for people to really feel welcome in this space of what classical music often is perceived as a little bit like uptight or a little bit sort of yeah, elitist or gate kept. And I think the more that people feel comfortable and free to just jump in. Or bring their kids and dogs and like, you know, and we want it to be a part of people's daily lives because it has brought us so much meaning and joy. Yeah. So more, more people to come hang out with us. That's that's how we see the future.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

Well, I'm uh really looking forward to both the event on the 15th and and the festival uh later on. Yeah. Uh thank you so much for coming and spending some time with me today. Thank you for having me. It's been really fun. Yeah. Excellent. And thank you for being with us here on Aerodrean Side. I'm Chris Glass, and we're gonna be back with more great episodes coming up.