Ongoing Projects
Discover Tian's current endeavors in music, arts, writings, concert programs and teaching initiatives.
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01 Performance
Tian's Musical Voyages
Multi-media concert series
2020 - current
Tian's Musical Voyages is an ongoing multi-media concert series that invites audiences on thoughtfully curated musical journeys, with each program built around a central theme, narrative story, or visual world. Through the integration of music, painting, poetry, photography, narration, and other artistic mediums, the series creates immersive experiences that transcend traditional concert formats.
I began this project in 2020 during the stillness of the pandemic. When physical travelings were not feasible, I thought to open doorways into distant places, cultures, and imaginative lands with my audience. At the heart of this project is a belief that music dissolves borders and brings different worlds together, that kindred souls across distance and time can connect through shared sonic landscapes, thus each concert is a moment of collective journeying.
Past programs have included themes such as "Meandering in Nature," "Four Seasons of Music," "The Gardens of Van Gogh and Monet," "From Classical Era to Impressionism," "Songs from Foreign Lands," and more.
02 Pedagogy
Interactive Piano Lab
Reimagined, improvisatory space of learning
2019 - current
Interactive Piano Lab is a pedagogical project I have initiated since 2019, rooted in the belief that learning flourishes through active engagement. Unlike traditional lecture-based or presentation-like formats, Interactive Piano Workshop invites participants to become co-creators of the experience: responding, questioning, practicing, and shaping the session in real time.
Each workshop is uniquely improvisational, evolving with the energy, curiosity, and perspectives of those present. Rather than offering fixed content, I guide discussions and activities that respond directly to the audience's contributions, encouraging critical thinking, reflective dialogue, and practical experimentation at the keyboard.
Whether exploring interpretive choices, technical challenges, or expressive possibilities, the central idea of the Interactive Piano Lab is to empower learners not simply as recipients of knowledge, but as active navigators in shaping their learning journey. It creates an inclusive and shared space for participants to explore their own rhythms while drawing inspiration and encouragement from one another's insights.
03 Community
ARIARTS Salon Series:
Conversations of Music and Beyond
2023 - current
ARIARTS (portmanteau of aria and arts) is an ongoing salon series that brings together multidisciplinary voices from across music and beyond. Each gathering centers on a unique topic, offering a space for open dialogue, creative exchange, and thoughtful reflection.
I lauched ARIARTS with the vision of cultivating a supportive and intellectually curious community for artists, thinkers, and makers to come together and share ideas. I've always believed that true inspiration often emerges when different disciplines meet, when people from diverse fields bring distinct perspectives that challenge, complement, and enrich one another: we share and we gain.
Since its inception, I have successfully hosted and curated over 25 salon gatherings. We have welcomed musicians, writers, photographers, scientists, sociologists, journalists, fashion designers, and more, each bringing a distinct lens to the conversation. Our community continues to grow.
*Gratefully received early-stage funding support from Luminarts.
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04 Writing
A Tree upon the Sea:
Poems in Musical Refraction
&
Remnants and Dandelions:
A Private Record within a Collective Time
2025 - current
A Tree upon the Sea: Poems in Musical Refraction is a collection of poems written over nearly a decade, gathering fleeting moments, passing thoughts, and their subtle significance in life.
Each piece in this collection is intimately connected to music, either born from specific musical phrases, or from a lived moment that found its echo in sound. The collection reflects the two paths that have shaped me most closely: pianist and writer. For me, music captures the immediacy of a moment, while words hold its trace. They are my anchors in this world, preserving what might otherwise fade.
The first seed was planted years ago during an evening piano practice. I was searching for the right sound for Schumann Fantasy's third movement, when I glanced up and saw a sunset through the window—a wash of pink-orange hue, endless and borderless. That's it, I thought, that's the sound of sunset. Years later, I still remember that moment, of which I'd had forgotten if not because of music. Of the countless sunsets that have ever graced this earth, that one sunset, it was mine.
I've come to believe that it is those fleeting moments that made us human. The ability to recognize them is a gift music has lend me. It keeps me true to myself. This collection began as something private, but over time, gratitude gathered its own momentum. Music has deepened my world in ways I can never repay, so I wanted to offer something in return, in the hope that others might glimpse a similar light through their own windows.
Remnants and Dandelions gathers prose I wrote between 2020 and 2025. At the time, I felt an urgency to record something: the changing world and its friction with private life, the lives and stories of others that reached me from afar, and the small treasures of ordinary days that still asked to be noticed—fresh air, indoor sunlight, the sound of snow, the scent of rain.
I often thought of Wittgenstein’s line, “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” During those years, writing became a way to approach what felt almost indescribable, and an effort to remain perceptive through bewilderment and disorientation.
I began writing these pieces without knowing exactly what they were becoming. Still, I trusted what words can preserve: that we may live through them more than once, and that time would bring its own answers.
05 Course
Music and Film
Explore the sonic language of cinema
2024 - 2025
This twenty-lecture series explores the world of music through the lens of cinema, drawing on a curated selection of films from diverse genres, directors, and composers.
As both a musician and a movie enthusiast, I am captivated by the rich interplay between visuals and sound—how they support, challenge, and reshape one another. The series is also a treasure hunt to discover classical music gems hidden within films.