Pianist Jenny Q. Chai puts her syn in the service of animal welfare at this Shanghai event
Patricia Lynne Duffy interviews the performer and creator
PLD: Jenny Q Chai, you are an internationally recognized concert pianist whose performances include a visual dimension, incorporating your experience of music-color synesthesia.
You have just given such a performance in your hometown of Shanghai. The event, called Bark Green, was a fundraiser for stray cats and dogs in your city. How was your synesthesia and focus on color integrated into this very special concert?
JQC: Green is always a very bright sound for me. So yes, my small toy poodles’ barks are ‘shiny green sparks’ for me. The big Corgi barks in a much darker green, a very deep color green.
Many musical sounds are green for me, especially when they depict nature and forests, woods, wide open plains. I hear green in Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony or Debussy’s Le Vent Dans La Plaine.
The Bark Green concert was not only to help stray dogs and cats, but also to promote environmental awareness and the welfare of all beings living on this planet. We especially customized green T-shirts for all the performers, and the event poster is green too. Environmental awareness is “green” for everyone!
PLD: Why did you see a need to put your musical talents and love of color to serve the cause of stray cats and dogs in your city?
JQC: Five years ago, after I moved back to China from the U.S., I realized street animals’ survival is totally dependent on random, caring individuals who are kind enough to help them. Unlike many other countries in the world, China has no small animal protection laws, no breeding laws and no state funded shelters.
Many animal lovers spend a considerable part of their personal savings on building shelters to help keep these street animals alive.
Because there is no state funding for animal welfare, the reproductive rates are way too high and out of control. Pet owners sometimes lack education: many in small villages don’t neuter their pets. The pets give birth to puppies and kittens, that are just dumped on the street in a shelter. It is very irresponsible and a huge problem in China.
PLD: Are you, yourself, an animal lover?
JQC: I am a huge animal lover. I have 8 cats and 2 dogs at home. And I have helped rescue almost 200 dogs and cats in the last 5 years.
PLD: In addition to being a performer, you are also the founder of a renowned music school, Face Art Institute of Music in Shanghai. Were the school staff and students involved in the fundraiser?
JQC: Oh yes, absolutely. One of my greatest joys is to inspire people and to get my students and families involved in charity events. At this Bark Green concert, for the second half, there was band music. My students played in the band with me. This event was at Shanghai’s West Central Bund.
PLD: Do you incorporate any aspect of synesthesia in the teaching methods at Face Art?
JQC: Yes, we have audiovisual music tech lessons, where we have students draw and create 3D Modeling images to match their music pieces.
In general, classical music teachers often give “synesthetic instructions”. A teacher might say, “play it brighter, darker, lighter, heavier, shinier, mistier, and so on”. These are very commonly used descriptions to help students associate and find the sonority and feelings they want in their music playing. At FaceArt, we take it to the next level.
PLD: Your work and studies have taken you to many parts of the world, including Europe and the United States. For a period, you taught at the University of California at Berkeley. You also discovered organizations such as Journey through the Senses and the UK Synesthesia Association. Did your experiences abroad contribute to raising your awareness of your experience of synesthesia?
JQC: It most certainly did. I think it was during my doctoral degree’s music history class, I learned that a number of composers and artists were synesthetes. Only then did I realize that I was a synesthete myself. Before that, like many synesthetes, I thought everyone perceived the world the way I did.
Learning about synesthesia as a special condition and discovering organizations like Journey through the Senses (JTTS) and the UK Synesthesia Association made me realize my uniqueness in experiencing the world. It was also great pleasure to discover the synesthesia conferences around the world and meet many other synesthetes with other forms of synesthesia.
PLD: What is your next project?
JQC: I have many projects lined up. A major upcoming one is an all-woman travel reality show shoot, which will continue until the end of the year. I find it a very good opportunity to promote animal welfare and colorful new music.
I also have a project called “Rewriting Goldberg” where I invite 10 composers to rewrite Bach’s Goldberg Variations for piano and electronics. This is a big project and will take some years to finish.
PLD: Sounds exhilarating, Jenny! We will look forward to the fruits of these unique, colorful projects.
Explore Jenny Q. Chai’s website:
https://www.jennychai.com
Patricia Lynne Duffy is the author of the now classic, Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: how synesthetes color their worlds, the first book by a synesthete about synesthesia. An audio version of the book with research updates, music by synesthete-composers, and an “Afterword” is recently out, available from Audible. Duffy also contributed a chapter, “Synesthesia and Literature” to the Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia. See her website: