A prodigy at the piano

Young Chang

Eva Xia hesitantly admits she listens to hip-hop music and that her

favorite rapper is Tupac.

She seems embarrassed for some reason but when asked, says she isn’t.

The 17-year-old also loves Martha Argerich, a renowned Argentine

pianist who Eva calls “absolutely awesome.” Her music is subdued but has

so much meaning, technique and depth.

“She’s like one of the most formidable women pianists,” Eva said,

sounding out “formidable” because it’s not a word teenagers use everyday.

Eva is formidable too, in her own way. Though it’s only been three

weeks since the Monterey Park resident turned 17, though she scatters

words like “like” and “guess” in much of her speech, Eva is extraordinary

in that she’s traveled the world playing the piano.

She will perform today as part of the Victoria Chamber Series at the

Unitarian Universalist Church in Costa Mesa, presenting a rare set of 30

variations by Bach and two pieces by Chopin. Other performances in the

series include piano duet team Penny Foster and M’lou Dietzer on Nov. 17,

clarinetist Hakan Rosengren and pianist Anne Epperson on Jan. 19 and

pianist Valentina Gottlieb on Feb. 16.

Dietzer, who is co-manager of the Victoria Chamber Series and a

professor emeritus at Cal State Fullerton’s music department, said she

had heard about Eva through the years, especially when the child prodigy

performed last spring at the International Bach Festival in Germany.

“It’s unusual for a 17-year-old student who has only studied for 10

years to have accomplished the ability to perform from memory the entire

Goldberg variations by Bach,” Dietzer said. “It is not often performed

live on the concert stage so this will be a rare opportunity.”

Eva and her family left China for America when she was just 6. That’s

when she started piano lessons with a teacher who threw at her “insanely

difficult” pieces.

Her piano-playing was more her parent’s doing in those days. Eva

decided to stop practicing once new teachers took their places at the

bench. She quelled the passion incited by those challenging first

lessons. By nine, Eva had stopped playing altogether.

But three years later, with the return of her first mentor, her

fingers graced the keys again.

“She really pushed me to go and try my best in everything,” Eva said.

“She really made me work hard and I like that. The others -- they didn’t

really care about me that much. They didn’t care whether I practiced a

lot. It was her who really cared. And if she cared, I needed to work

harder.”

Today, the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts student boasts

music awards from the Southwestern Youth Music Festival, a competition at

Cypress College and the highest award from the certificate of merit

testing program presented by the Music Teachers Assn. of California.

She practices for about two to three hours at home everyday, before

she starts her homework and gets tired. But that’s only after a day’s

worth of practice already had. It’s one of the privileges of being

musically outstanding at an early age and having peers that are equally

musically precocious.

“I have academics in the morning and in the afternoon, ‘til 4 p.m., I

have arts education,” Eva said.

While others her age study history, math, science, English and other

typical subjects from 8 to 3 p.m., Eva’s academic day includes lessons on

orchestration, conduction, music theory and how to play in a chamber as

well as piano ensemble.

“It’s a lot of fun because those people are like my friends too and

they’re in music and I can be around them,” Eva said of her peers.

Like normal teens, they shop, blast hip-hop and go to the movies.

Unlike typical teens, they know which piano they’d like to play one day.

Eva’s is the German Bosendorfer and the Hamburg Steinways.

“There’s so much you can do,” she said. “The sound at the bass is so

rich.”

Her goals are surprising. She might want to major, or at least

double-major, in math once she heads off to college.

“I guess it’s something I’m good at,” Eva reasoned. “All throughout

high school, stuff like physics and math have been my strong subjects.”

But ask her what she knows best, and she’ll stick loyally by the

brilliance of Bach, Chopin and her favorite musical celebrity Argerich.

“I guess it’s a means of expressing myself,” Eva said. “But expressing

not only like emotions, but what I know about the music and history and

about the culture of the composer. I guess that’s what I like about it.”

FYI

WHAT: Eva Xia performs with the Victoria Chamber Series

WHEN: 5 p.m. today

WHERE: Unitarian Universalist Church, 1259 Victoria St., Costa Mesa

COST: $8 for adults, free for students

CALL: (949) 651-8493