# In Conversation with Dr. Wu Chun, Tsinghua University's Artist-in-Residence **Violy · People** “Violy · People” is a Violy interview series that sets out to speak with 99 artists from China and around the world, bringing fresh artistic ideas into conversation and exploring a world of art where feeling and spirit meet. Our guest in this edition is **Dr. Wu Chun, Tsinghua University's artist-in-residence and a Steinway Artist.** ![](https://static.lianmuse.com/image/blog/c43894ed801de570acf85c176091a053.jpg) Dr. Wu Chun The original article introduces him as holding a performer's doctorate in piano from Germany's Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, as well as doctorates in piano performance and musical arts from Ukraine's Odesa National Music Academy. It describes him as **a Chinese pianist with three doctoral degrees** and the recipient of sixteen international awards. His biography in the article lists him as Tsinghua University's artist-in-residence, a Steinway Artist, an honorary professor in the piano department of Odesa National Music Academy in Ukraine, and a teacher at the Central Conservatory of Music. **In its December 22, 2025 announcement, Violy was delighted to invite Dr. Wu to an online conversation on December 23.** The article below originally appeared in October 2020. The interview answers, including references to Violy's features, reflect that historical conversation. Violy previously invited Dr. Wu to a lively online interview about his journey as a music student and his insights into education. How did someone born into an ordinary family become a pianist who attracted the world's attention? What difficulties did he encounter while learning the piano? How did he ultimately overcome them? The conversation below answers these questions and more. * * * Y: Violy W: Wu Chun **Y: What do you consider the biggest obstacle you encountered while learning the piano?** W: I certainly encountered some difficulties, but I would not call them “obstacles,” because **if you want to overcome them, you can.** Common difficulties include young children being restless, wanting to play, or having trouble concentrating. Parents may not understand music or know how to correct their children's mistakes, but software such as Violy can now address that problem. Beyond that, I think what matters is **maintaining the relationship between parents, teachers, and students as an equilateral triangle.** Teachers must do their work well, treating students with patience, care, and a sense of responsibility. Parents should work with teachers, build a bridge of communication between teachers and students, and give their children enough support and companionship. Even if parents do not understand music, they should be there while their children practice, **so that children feel cared for and know they are not alone on their musical journey.** Learning the piano is, in itself, a lonely activity: you practice alone, and lessons are one-to-one. If a close family member can stay beside a child and offer understanding and help, the child will be less inclined to retreat from practice. That is why I feel **there are few true obstacles.** Every family and every child is different, so difficulties may arise. But **if teachers, parents, and children maintain a good relationship and keep communicating, any difficulty can be overcome.** **Y: At your lowest point, did you ever think about giving up? What helped you get through it?** W: I never really experienced an especially serious low point. The small setbacks I encountered while learning the piano were things like not winning a prize in a competition or not performing as well as I had hoped onstage. Those things can affect your mood. You might not feel like practicing for the next few days, or you might become a little resistant. Fortunately, **I never felt that I did not want to keep learning.** At those moments, **encouragement from parents is very important.** Even at a so-called low point, if parents guide their child positively, that “difficulty” can become excellent training and an opportunity to grow. **No one is invincible in competitions. Nobody wins forever.** Even if you win a competition, that result belongs to the past. You still have to keep training and working hard, improving a little every day. Everyone makes mistakes onstage. **No matter who you are, there will be imperfections.** What you need to do in your next performance is correct the mistakes from the previous one and keep refining your work. Isn't that what progress is? For me, **one of the bigger setbacks was a competition I entered in Hong Kong in 1997.** My family had no money at the time. My mother borrowed money to buy my plane ticket; my travel and accommodation expenses were borrowed too. I went there full of confidence and said, “I will definitely bring you back a prize and the prize money.” In the end, I did not even reach the final. I came home feeling utterly defeated. I had not told my mother when my flight would arrive, but when I came out of the airport, I saw her. **She said, “Mom is here to pick you up.”** Our financial circumstances were very difficult then. A taxi from our home to the airport cost more than 100 yuan, which was a lot of money at the time, so **she walked to the airport to meet me.** My flight arrived at night. She had started walking in the afternoon and kept going until evening. Seeing her at the airport moved me deeply. After that setback, I placed first or second in almost all of the competitions I entered next. I hope this can show everyone that **there is no difficulty that cannot be overcome.** My other piece of advice is: **even when you reach a low point, please, please do not give up.** I believe that for someone who has learned the piano since childhood, “giving up” should not be part of their vocabulary. I started learning the piano at four. I watched my mother work several jobs on her own to help me fulfill my dream. I sometimes worked alongside her. In Wuhan's 40°C heat, I helped her buy and deliver goods and did whatever manual work I could manage. We overcame those difficulties together. So I hope children will **honor their own efforts, their families' sacrifices, and their teachers' devoted guidance.** Whether or not you pursue it professionally, learning the piano is certainly beneficial. When you need it, you can quietly enjoy time alone with the piano. **Whatever you are feeling, you can express it through the piano,** freely, safely, without hurting anyone—and without buying a ticket. **Y: Which mentor had the greatest influence on you while you were learning the piano? What kind of influence did they have?** W: Every one of my teachers had a great influence on me at a different stage. My first teacher was Kuang Ying. **She introduced me to the piano and led me into its world.** She also introduced me to my second teacher, Shen Hongze. Teacher Shen helped me **experience the richness of piano knowledge firsthand** and understand the vastness of its literature and the variety of its styles. In 1991, he introduced me to Professor Chen Wan, then head of the piano department at Wuhan Conservatory of Music. **That was my true introduction to professional piano study.** She was among the most renowned teachers in south-central China. She showed me how rigorous piano study is and how much meticulous, diligent work it requires. Alongside teaching me the piano, Professor Chen Wan taught me how to conduct myself: **to serve society and the people, and to express my character through music.** In 1998, she sent me to Odesa National Music Academy in Ukraine, where I met Professor Kalina Popova. I was sixteen and knew no one in that foreign country. **Professor Popova cared for me like a mother, giving me the warmth of family even far from home.** My last teacher was Professor Vladimir Krainev. The story of how I became his student was rather dramatic. **In 2000, I entered a competition named after him and won second prize,** but only the first-prize winner had the opportunity to go to Germany to study with him. I suppose I was a young person with nothing to fear. After the prizewinners' concert, I went straight up to him and asked in Russian, “Maestro, I would like to become your student. Would that be possible?” He found it interesting that a Chinese person was speaking to him in Russian and told me, “Next year I have a concert tour in Russia. Come then, and let me see how much you have improved over the year.” **In 2001, I joined Professor Krainev's concert tour.** After the last concert, he said, “All right. First complete your graduate degree, then come directly to me for doctoral study.” But for particular reasons, I did not actually set foot in Germany until 2005. **Before going to Germany, I also studied for a doctorate in performance and a doctorate in music theory in Ukraine.** That is why I have three doctoral degrees. Professor Krainev's greatest influence on me was that **he gave me confidence.** He said, “If even I have recognized your ability, why would you lack confidence onstage?” **I still remember those words. Whenever I doubt myself, they give me courage.** **Y: You just mentioned earning three doctoral degrees. Could you share any study techniques?** W: My technique is **to use time wisely.** A performance doctorate involves giving concerts in many formats and at many scales, and taking part in all kinds of competitions. A doctorate in theory requires more time squeezed out for research. **The two do not conflict.** When you are tired of playing, you can read; when you are tired of reading, you can play. For me, it did not feel especially exhausting. **The only relatively difficult part was traveling between two schools,** since they were in two different countries, in Eastern and Western Europe. **But you first need to manage your time well if you want to switch between those roles effectively.** **Y: When have you felt that all your hard work had paid off?** W: I think **“contentment brings happiness”** is what matters most. **What people put in and what they get back often do not match.** Putting in 10 and getting back 100 is extremely rare; you can almost disregard that possibility. **More often, especially in the short term, the return is less than the investment.** So before doing anything, think through three or four different levels of outcome. **Prepare yourself mentally, accept the worst outcome in advance, and make different plans. That helps you feel at peace.** **If the result is very good, then you can count yourself fortunate,** right? Of course, effort is very important throughout that process. **Working hard does not guarantee success, but without hard work, you certainly will not succeed.** Rewards take many forms, both material and emotional. I come from a single-parent family. My mother was alone back in China, and the longest we went without seeing each other was six years. So for me, the reward is more about giving something back to her. I share every prize and every achievement with her. **That emotional encouragement is a reward for both of us.** The two of us supported a household together. Beyond being mother and son, we were family members supporting each other, and even close friends. Whenever my efforts bring even a small achievement, **I call my mother immediately to share the good news and encourage her,** helping both of us keep going. That is why I think contentment matters so much. Start with the little things. You do not have to achieve something enormous. Great achievements are wonderful, of course, but **small achievements that accumulate slowly and steadily are worthwhile too.** **Y: After so many years building your career abroad, what made you decide to return to China?** W: At the time, I had a company representing me abroad, concerts, and a stable income. But my mother had always stayed in China. She was getting older and her health was not very good. I feared **wanting to care for her only to find that she was no longer there.** That would be deeply painful, so I wanted to return first. Another very important reason was **my wish to serve my country and its people.** I wanted to bring back what I had learned and teach it to more people. **Y: Why did you choose to teach at Tsinghua University?** W: It was also a matter of circumstance. I met Zhao Hong, director of Tsinghua University's Center for Arts Education. After learning about my background and hearing me play, she invited me to meet and exchange ideas with students in Tsinghua's performing arts troupe. I remember very clearly that I spent my thirtieth birthday on a stage at Tsinghua. From that year onward, **whenever I returned to China for concerts or to visit family, I would also return to Tsinghua University,** giving free lessons and lectures to students in the keyboard ensemble and helping them put on concerts. **I wanted to bring some music and art into their lives amid the heavy pressure of their studies.** Seeing their progress and happiness gave me great satisfaction. I felt that this was why I had started teaching music. In June 2017, I became **Tsinghua University's first-ever artist-in-residence, and its only one at the time,** maintaining close ties with the university and its students. **Y: You remain active onstage as a performer while also teaching. How do you balance the two?** W: I want both a concert stage and a classroom. In general, **whether I am performing or teaching, I can balance the two as long as I organize my time well.** I enjoy teaching because **I can see something of myself in the process.** In my students, I see echoes of my own years of study. I also see their desire to absorb more professional knowledge and improve themselves. At the same time, I understand parents' hopes that their children will find a good teacher who is responsible, patient, and caring. So **I want to share everything I have learned with my students, holding nothing back.** Of course, **teaching and performing are inseparable.** As I said earlier, you practice alone, and lessons are one-to-one. You need a stage and opportunities to show more people what you have learned. That is why I also cherish the stage. Whenever I have the opportunity, I want to **share what I have learned with an audience through performance, which can make it more immediate for them.** Something I often say is: **“The stage is the most lovable place, so you must cherish it.”** Whenever an opportunity comes, give it your all. **Y: More and more music students are choosing to study abroad. In your view, in what respects is music education abroad ahead of that in China?** W: Whatever else we say, the piano is a Western instrument, and its roots are there. It is like our Peking opera and traditional Chinese music: we cannot expect to learn traditional Chinese music properly abroad. Of course, that was how my generation thought about going overseas. **For our generation, choosing to study abroad was a journey in search of roots:** to gain genuine knowledge, then return home to serve our country and pass it on to more people. Many people have now done this. At some of China's top conservatories, **many Chinese students win international prizes every year and bring honor to the country.** **So I think the gap is narrowing.** Access to knowledge is also very convenient now. Whether through video or audio, there are so many opportunities and channels for encountering music. **Y: There are now many online practice-support apps on the market. How do you view the development of online education?** W: I have not used many practice-support apps. I have only used Violy. The feature I use most is video lessons. I used the software to teach my students during the pandemic. **Because I was living abroad, I started teaching remotely in 2003,** so I have built up some experience. After trying Violy, some of my students who lived elsewhere decided to use it for remote lessons, saving time and effort. Whether for practice support, correcting mistakes, or taking online masterclasses, **I think Violy is a “one-stop” solution that brings all those possibilities together, so I strongly recommend it.** * * * Dr. Wu Chun generously gave Violy this interview after working for twelve hours, and we are deeply grateful. His sincerity moved and encouraged us throughout the conversation. **The December 2025 announcement invited readers to watch Dr. Wu Chun's live online conversation, scheduled for December 23, 2025, at 8 p.m. Beijing time.** * * * **/ · Recommended Reading · /** [![](https://static.lianmuse.com/image/blog/2d701c2dd763d94a11db0dfe800642f0.jpg)](http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzUxMjU5ODMyMg==&mid=2247488365&idx=1&sn=7cc5ee86df1526709bd075653aec81e4&chksm=f9635b30ce14d2261e82eba519c2c62eb3964abd7538940fb12de55603305c63367172f15690&scene=21#wechat_redirect) [![](https://static.lianmuse.com/image/blog/fa5c7577a4b94946c5158ad317274320.jpg)](http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzUxMjU5ODMyMg==&mid=2247487803&idx=1&sn=3d952c50ae5720809d5d1acad207b7e1&chksm=f9635966ce14d070e3782efcb8f405282e08efb2c1582d727006da6dbe7546b28582ddbcbdfc&scene=21#wechat_redirect) [![](https://static.lianmuse.com/image/blog/1a480bc986f7de6dfeeee78b1c806d0d.jpg)](http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzUxMjU5ODMyMg==&mid=2247487521&idx=1&sn=72f155a4e45e69f9d40ca5440c8c76e6&chksm=f963587cce14d16acfb81fa4244564e67c0c6b081a49e335ea1705cda65393a3a3fa7faf1b32&scene=21#wechat_redirect) Source: [Original Violy WeChat article, December 22, 2025](http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzUxMjU5ODMyMg==&mid=2247507340&idx=1&sn=a735d38c743d85ab4fc41e04923efc1f&chksm=f96095d1ce171cc76f9918c57880d4002b415bba7b5e0f1f132bae8a636243e4e5e86b6bdaaf#rd).