The MC² Trio performs Beethoven with the Beach Cities Symphony
The MC² Trio: Violinist Leonard Chong, pianist Isabella Ma, and cellist Erick Chong in 2013. They perform Friday with the Beach Cities Symphony. Photo courtesy of Anli Lin Tong
Practice Made Perfect
The MC² Trio plays Beethoven with the Beach Cities Symphony
In 2015, there were over 90 groups vying for first place in the national finals of the MTNA Chamber Music Competition. That year, the Music Teachers National Association conferred top honors upon MC² (MC squared), a South Bay Trio comprised of Isabella Ma, violinist Leonard Chong, and cellist Erick Chong. Their talents will be on view tomorrow evening when they perform Beethoven’s “Triple Concerto” with the Beach Cities Symphony.
The right stuff
Isabella (age 19), Leonard (18), and Erick (20) have known each other for years, Isabella having grown up in Palos Verdes and the Chong brothers in Manhattan Beach, with the three of them later brought together under the guidance of acclaimed pianist Anli Lin Tong and through the Junior Chamber Musicians Program. The matchup couldn’t have been better.
“We felt like we did well as a group,” says Erick, “and we started doing competitions and recitals.”
“It worked right off the bat,” adds Leonard, “and we never thought about changing it.”
For the last couple of years, though, Isabella has been spending most of her time in New York, where she is majoring in piano performance at Mannes New School for Music. With the two brothers living locally and attending USC, one imagines, correctly, that their opportunities to join up and rehearse are quite limited.
“The only time that we can rehearse is when I’m on winter break and I come home to visit family,” Isabella says. She’ll be returning to New York on Saturday, the day after the concert.
But this hasn’t exactly been a setback for the young trio. Regarding their first place finish in the MTNA national finals:
“We were only able to rehearse with each other for just a few days before the competition,” says Leonard. “It just shows how well we jell together.”
Isabella points out that they make the most of the time they have with each other because they’ve practiced individually beforehand.
When you can best 90-some-odd other performers that’s a big deal. What did MC² have that the others didn’t have, or let’s say didn’t have as much of?
“First of all,” Leonard answers, “what judges are looking for is not just technical mastery on each instrument, but also the musicality and togetherness of the whole group. Individuals can have great ideas on their own, but if they don’t match up with everyone else’s then they don’t form a very cohesive ensemble. I think that our group does a good job of talking about what we want to do. Sometimes we disagree, but we try to find a way that works for everyone.
“And why us,” he continues, “specifically for that competition? Well, just the basis of our name, MC². MC² equals energy.”
Yes, but…
And then Isabella clarifies it further: M stands for Ma, her last name, and C-squared because of the two Chongs. Pretty clever when you think about it, no?
The MC2 Trio, Erick Chong, Isabella Ma, and Leonard Chong. Photo
Musically challenged
MC² and the Beach Cities Symphony will perform the “Triple Concerto” in its entirety, and it runs a good half hour.
“We’re up for the challenge,” says Leonard.
Was this work by Beethoven one that you selected?
“We didn’t have much choice in what we could perform,” Isabella replies, “because first of all there aren’t a lot of concertos for piano trios.” Beethoven’s composition could be the best known, she adds. “So our coach Anli Tong selected it for us.”
And would you have chosen this if the choice had been up to you?
“I honestly would not have chosen this piece,” Erick says, eliciting laughter, “because it’s a very difficult piece.” But he concedes that, as difficult as it is, it’s also a good experience for them.
What about nerves, or the jitters, before going on stage? Isn’t it possible that security guards will be standing by to haul them off to jail if they hit a wrong note?
Well, essentially it’s about being prepared, and Isabella’s reply seems to sum up what each of them feels:
“For me it depends on how well and how much I practice before the performance. I want to feel extremely prepared so that when I go on stage I’m not afraid of anything, and I can be confident to just have the music flow out of me rather than thinking about certain techniques or notes.
“The good thing about California or at least the South Bay,” she adds, “is that there are so many local competitions, and if you win you get to play with orchestras.” And in her case, yes, she’s achieved that several times, including when she was 14 and performed Chopin’s “Piano Concerto No. 1” with the Beach Cities Symphony.
What drove (or pushed) them
As children, did all of you want to become musicians, or did you want to do something else? Did your parents tell you what they wanted?
“Exactly; I was forced,” says Isabella, smiling. “My mom chose what I needed to learn when I was young, so she had me learn a lot of things, but not just music: Dancing, singing, ballet, tap dance, jazz dance, acting, modeling.” She has two sisters (also a brother) who were subjected to the same regimen, for their own good of course.
“But in the end I decided to stick with piano.”
Sometimes when children are pushed too hard they rebel. Not you, obviously, but your sisters?
“They rebelled like crazy because they hated practicing,” Isabella says. “I think the hardest thing about music is the constant practice and the time you (have to) put into it. Too many kids just can’t do that. My sisters hated that, they didn’t practice, and in the end they just quit.”
But let’s not feel sorry for them just yet. According to Isabella they’re happy and on the road to success with other pursuits they’re more comfortable with.
Leonard says he can’t ever remember not playing the violin. He began at age seven and he’s pretty sure his parents pushed or pressured him into it. “But this is something that I was really good at and something that I enjoyed. I really appreciate music and I love the violin, and so I just decided this was something that I wanted to do.
“On the subject of practicing,” he adds, “I think that most people will say that they hate practicing, and I hate practicing with a burning passion.” Everybody laughs. “But it’s something that you have to do.”
Isabella: “It’s worth it when you’re on stage, right?”
“It’s worth it,” Leonard replies.
Erick points out that there are four siblings, so two others besides him and Leonard, and that they all started out on piano before shifting over to violin. But at a student recital in middle school he saw a cellist by whom he was inspired.
“I basically begged my parents to buy me a cello because I wanted to play cello,” he says. “They obliged, and I started taking lessons I think literally the next day after I got the cello. So it was ultimately my choice to play cello over violin, and I dropped violin and piano pretty soon after that.”
Not surprisingly, Erick doesn’t care for practicing either, but coming from a musical family he doesn’t want to be seen trailing the others. “At one time I was really tired of losing to everybody, including my younger brother. We’d go up against (each other) in the same competition and he would win and I wouldn’t. I was very disappointed.” After reflecting upon it, “I started practicing diligently” and that’s how he’s gotten to where he is now. Or, looked at another way, that’s a bit of sibling rivalry in action, but with a better ending than the one between Cain and Abel.
The MC2 Trio, Erick Chong, Leonard Chong, and Isabella Ma. Photo
Personal favorites
The responses are interesting, and different, when Leonard, Erick, and Isabella are asked about their favorite composers.
Isabella replies that she couldn’t possibly choose only one, “and since I’m still in the process of studying music there are so many more composers to discover.” No argument there. But then she points out that although she’d been leaning towards the Romantic era for the past three years she now finds herself to be more passionate about Classical music, “especially Beethoven.”
And she elaborates: “It might be because my music history teacher this year is quite good, and I started learning a lot of Davidbowieoffsky.” She laughs, they laugh, I cautiously smile. “I learned so much about each composer and their background, and Beethoven was such an interesting and amazing figure. Listening to his music, I can almost feel the pain and the struggle that he went through in his life. And it’s just really inspiring.”
I’ll be seeing Beethoven this weekend, I remark, and I’ll be sure to tell him. (Not a complete lie, mind you, since I attended his “Missa Solemnis” on Sunday night at Disney Hall, performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale)
“Unlike Isabella,” says Leonard, “I lean heavily towards the Romantic era.” That includes Chopin and Tchaikovsky, and also the late Romantics, Dvorak, Debussy especially, and Rachmaninoff. “(Richard) Strauss might be coming into it with the ‘Alpine Symphony,’” he adds, noting that he’s currently studying the work with Carl St. Clair, a teacher but also a noted conductor and music director with the Pacific Symphony in Orange County.
Being a cellist, one wouldn’t expect Erick to single out the lighter tunes of Vivaldi or Rossini, and he doesn’t. Dvorak is a favorite, and also Shostakovich, the latter’s music with a dark glow, at once heartrendingly beautiful and profound.
Who can say, perhaps the individual personalities of each member of this group are somehow reflected in their musical preferences?
But despite accolades and awards, does the MC² Trio have a viable future? Part of that could depend on whether or not Isabella remains in New York.
“Am I planning to stay there?” she says. “After this semester I have one more year left, and then I graduate.” However, “I can’t really see myself going back to Los Angeles.”
“Oooh,” groans Leonard, and everyone laughs.
“It’s a lifestyle,” Isabella continues. “It’s cold I know but it’s life-changing. I just adore living in New York City so much that I can’t see leaving that place. I want to continue with my Masters, and most of the schools that I want to study at are on the East Coast. We’ll see, though. Who knows, they might come to New York.”
Hearing those words, Erich and Leonard don’t seem enthusiastic, but Isabella’s right, the future can cast a pretty wide net and who can say where we’re bound in a year or two. But for the moment, we have these fine musicians right here, and they’re gearing up for what should be a stunning concert.
The MC² Trio performs Beethoven’s “Triple Concerto” at 8:15 p.m. on Friday with the Beach Cities Symphony, conducted by Barry Brisk, at Marsee Auditorium on the campus of El Camino College, Crenshaw and Redondo Beach boulevards, Torrance. There is a pre-concert lecture at 7:30, and admission is free (on-site parking, $3). Also on the program, Mozart’s overture to “La Clemenza di Tito” and “Symphony No. 3” by Sibelius. (310) 379-9725, (310) 539-4649, or go to beachcitiessymphony.org. ER