The Road To New York

This season marks two years since Frank Huang became concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. But, as Ken Smith discovers, the Chinese-born musician might have quit the violin as a teenager had it not been for the influence of Donald Weilerstein, who taught him to think beyond the technical proficiency encouraged by his ‘tiger mom’

- John Ryan Lockman

Although he was only placed fourth at the 2002 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Frank Huang – then 24 years old – impressed a critic from The Strad (January 2003) with playing that was ‘dripping with personality’. When we meet backstage at Shanghai Symphony Hall and I remind him of that youthful showing, Huang breaks into a quiet smile.

What The Strad didn’t know at the time was that Huang was suffering from tendinitis, putting his left arm on ice between each round. Today he recalls that experience – as much as winning first place at New York’s Naumburg Competition the next year – as a turning point in his career. ‘My teacher Don Weilerstein had talked almost every lesson about how to visualise as if you’re practising,’ Huang recalls. ‘In Indianapolis, I had to practise mentally because I couldn’t practise physically. Suddenly I didn’t need the instrument in my hands to feel like I was getting work done.’

It’s a philosophy he now works to instil in his own students, whether at the Juilliard School or in short-term masterclasses. ‘Many people who practise six hours a day could accomplish the same amount in an hour if they had clear mental goals,’ he claims. ‘That’s the only reason I’ve been able to learn things quickly. Without much effort, I can grasp how it all fits together.’