violin
Dr. Chia-Chien Goh, holds a doctorate in violin performance with a minor in orchestral conducting, is a former Associate Professor of Violin at the UCSI University Institute of Music, former Principal of the Bentley Music Academy, Founder of the Kampung Strings Chamber Orchestra, Former Concert Master of the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra, current violin lecturer at UCSI University, current Artistic Director of Musicians Linkage, regular faculty of the Clazz International Music Festival, and both the Principal Music Director and Advisor to the Philomusica Society. He was the recipient of Campbell Graduate Scholarship, and both the Ivan Galamian and Vartan Manoogian awards.
In 1998, he founded the Kampung Strings Chamber Orchestra to train young, local Malaysian musicians aged 12 to 26 in a chamber orchestra setting with many of the violin students in the program under his private instruction. Mr. Goh coached and performed with this group extensively and provided varied performance opportunities for them whenever possible, including the MPO/BBC Proms at the PETRONAS Twin Towers and recording sessions in professional studios. Reviews of the Kampung Strings performances, just one year after its inception, marveled at the level of performance of a group consisting of local musicians. Within one and a half years, the principals of Kampung Strings were the section principals of the Kuala Lumpur Symphony Orchestra. In 2007, all five winners of the HSBC International Strings Competition held in Malaysia were former Kampung Strings members. In addition to Kampung Strings, while in the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Dr. Goh was an active member of their Education and Outreach Program. This involved teaching in both their Symphony and Sonata Clubs, membership on the board of their Apprenticeship Program, and actively participating in run out functions to teach or perform outside of Kuala Lumpur.
During his undergraduate and graduate work, Dr. Goh underwent conducting training with both Dr. David Becker and James Smith that led to conducting the UW Chamber Orchestra, rehearsals for an AIDS benefit concert, UW String Orchestra, and two of his of his own private string orchestras while in Wisconsin among other engagements.
Dr. Goh is a retired MMA fighter and still actively trains. With a background in ITF Tae Kwan do, Muay Thai, Kyokushinkai, boxing, wrestling, and Brazilian Jujitsu, he now trains for a healthy lifestyle. An area of research Dr. Goh has been involved with since 2002 is the cross disciplinary application and implementation of martial arts into violin performance and pedagogy. In 2006, Chia-Chien authored a dissertation proposal to engage research on this topic, but was advised by his major professor to save this project for a more public distribution. His late professor and he believed that the completion and publication of this research would radically alter violin performance and pedagogy on a global scale. “Although this is a difficult topic to research, the fruits born to the musician willing to explore this area are more than adequate to justify the research. Clearly, the use of martial arts in their martial forms offer great benefits to the performing musician. Improvement in nearly all aspects of musical performance is likely and increased confidence on stage would be definite. This topic demonstrates a clear and present area of nearly untouched research.” (Goh, Chia-Chien. Martial Arts in Music – Enhancing Violin Performance with Fighting Arts. P. 11) Thus far, preliminary observations on Dr. Goh’s private students have proven the benefits of martial arts in violin pedagogy and performance to be exceptionally significant versus students with no martial arts exposure. Likewise, he has published two articles on the topic of Martial arts in violin performance for Stringendo, the Journal for the Australian String Teachers Association. At the age of 22, Chia-Chien was the youngest founding member of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, where 110 musicians from 26 countries were brought together from a field of over 5,500 applicants. This was the first tier one orchestra in Southeast Asia with players from the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony, Kiev Opera House, and several other great institutions. Dr. Goh enjoyed performing with my colleague from the Maud Powell Music Festival, Daniella Carvalho, in Weill Hall, Carnegie Hall on a rarely performed piece by Villa-Lobos. He has also completed two solo performances and a recording of the complete solo violin works of Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst including the Grand Caprice Solo Violin Transcription of Schubert’s Der Erlkonig and a complete performance of the 24 Caprices by Niccolo Paganini. Dr. Goh is one of less than thirty violinists alive who have accomplished a live performance of the complete 24 Caprices by Niccoló Paganini, one of only five violinists alive who have done several live performances of the complete solo violin works by Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (whose works are known as the absolute apex of violin technical literature,) and one of only two alive who have accomplished live performances of both complete works as well as a recording of the Ernst solo violin works. His foundation was laid by the Suzuki School of Violin; he had the wonderful opportunity of having several private lessons with Dr. Shin’ichi Suzuki. Efim Boico taught him one of the more prominent schools of Russian violin playing. From Vartan Manoogian, Mr. Goh learned both the Galamian School of Violin as well as Mr. Manoogian’s observations from the Paris Conservatory. His understanding of Mr. Manoogian’s methodology was strengthened by studying the sage’s Foundations series of violin technique books. Dr. Goh also collaborated with many of his colleagues in the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra who shared with him some of their ideas in violin pedagogy. Coursework during his MM and DMA included some of the more accessible pedagogical methods today such as Dalcroze, Rolland, and Kodaly which he employed with his youngest students at the Einstein American Chinese Preschool to great effect.
One of his greatest joys is to perform either overlooked or new works of music to not only open new horizons for the audience and himself, but to also add to the brilliant repertoire available to the violinists of today and tomorrow. Some of the wonderful new works he has performed or recorded are White Tiger by Jerry Hui, For Two by Gary Powell Nash with Martha Saywell Carson, and Cinematic Dreams by Hollywood composer, Corey Wallace. Some of the less well-known gems he has had the pleasure of performing are wonderful works such as Le Boeuf sur le Toit by Darius Milhaud and the Concerto for Violin op.24 by acclaimed film composer, Miklo Rozsa. The latter was performed for Rozsa’s centennial celebration. Dr Chia-Chien Goh displays much sincerity, passion, enthusiasm, and excitement towards teaching and this fire remains burning.