Word: chen
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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They look like a football team doing their warm-up calisthenics. One--the hands go down, two--they move together, three--out to the sides, and four--back up to the top, over and over again. Fifteen people in a classroom imitating the motions of conductor Chen Liang-Sheng...
...imitation is not even close to perfect. Even in this simple beat pattern, the most basic part of a conductor's technique, Chen's movements reveal a grace and depth of concentration that make his students' hands appear tense and stubby by comparison...
...vertebrae going up," and to bring a sense of calm to their motions he suggests that at the end of each four beats "the will must be completely out." Intrigued by his half-sentences and mesmerized by his sinewy movements, the class seems to take on some of Chen's relaxation and command...
...Chen is a small man, with the slight wiry build of a teen-aged boy. His face is animated and supple, often scrunching into a hundred creases to accommodate a large smile. He dresses simply, favoring the kind of baggy shirts that permit his arms to move freely...
Born in 1933 in Shanghai, Chen grew up under the Japanese occupation of China, a frantic time unconducive to musical studies. After his family emigrated to the U.S. to flee the Chinese revolution, he began to study music at Berkeley. He got a masters in composition at Princeton, then waited on table in New York for three years. So it wasn't until ten years ago, at the age of thirty-two that Chen began to study conducting at the Geneva Conservatory. "I stayed two years in the class and when I finished I still didn't know...