Meet Myles Yang | Music Professor – Bassoon

We had the good fortune of connecting with Myles Yang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Myles, can you share a quote or affirmation with us?
Many years ago, I was study at Yale. The dean of our music school was Dr. Robert Blocker. He told us a story in one of the school meetings. In 1817, gas street light was introduce to the US. Every lamp need to be lighted by a lamplighter after sunset. The first lamp was lit on the corner of Baltimore and Holliday streets in Baltimore, where the young Robert Louis Stevenson was living in. Later in his life he wrote famous books including Treasure Island. When he was a child in Baltimore, one night he was staring at the street outside his bedroom window. His grandmother asked him what he was looking at. He said, look! There’s a man poking holes in the darkness. Dr. Blocker said, as musician, we are the lamplighter in the current age.

While sad tragedies and disasters happening every day in the world, we poke a hole in the darkness. That’s the core value for being a musician and an artist. I had privilege to work with world top conductor Maestro Ludovic Morlot few years ago. He said, to not feel tired on stage, take a glace in the audience and pick a young child. Remind yourself that your performance right now will probably change his life forever.

Living in the music life is not only work for ourselves. We influence people around us, in the audience, in front of the TV, on the internet, and many more places. And these two quotes are my favorites in my music career.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I grow up in China and came to the US for my college as a Freshmen. Be able to set my career in a different country where using a completely different language is especially challenging I think. First few years of my life in college is very stressful in academic studies due to language difficulty. I always sit in the first row in the class room and staring at the teacher for the whole class even though I can only understand maybe one tenth of the sentences they spoke. But I show my eager to learn. I always go to their office hour asking for extra assignment and have professors check my homework before I turn it in. There was one professor said to me, you don’t need to come every time, I will give you an A. I think the sincere attitude is very important to overcome challenges in many situations.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Here in Columbus Georgia, we have many outdoor spots that are popular to local people. Like the Chattahoochee river rafting, Canyon hiking, etc. We certainly have one of the top music programs in the area. Concert events are quite popular too. Columbus is a historical city, many stories in the city and many historical spots that are worth to visit.

Website: mylesbassoon.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mingbassoon/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MingBassoon

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUZN1v8PC4gOTSwL3f_80SQ

Other: Schwob bassoon studio: https://www.mylesbassoon.com/schwobassoon