Taiwan piano couple play for pope

Published Date: February 12, 2010

Tags: Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, Pope Benedict

Taiwan piano couple play for pope thumbnail

Taiwan-based piano duo, Lina Yeh and her German husband, Rolf-Peter Wille, met Pope Benedict Wednesday before giving their first ever performance at the Vatican.

The concert was part of the celebrations for the 25th founding anniversary of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, Radio Taiwan International reports.

The couple was accompanied by Larry Yu-yuan Wang, Taiwan’s ambassador to the Vatican, during the audience with the pope, E-Taiwan News adds.

The duo played classic pieces by Bach, Brahms, Edvard Grieg and Francis Poulenc as well as adapted piano versions of pieces by Taiwanese composer Chen Yang.

Their flawless presentation won resounding applause and many enthusiastic fans took photographs with them and sought their autographs after the concert.

The couple said they were flattered to be invited to perform in the Paul VI Hall.

Concert organizers said they were moved by the duo’s pursuit of excellence. Even though the couple has worked as a piano duo for a long time, they practiced hard at their hotel and the Paul VI Hall before the concert in order to give their best performance, the organizers said.

Zygmunt Zimowski, chairman of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, said the remarkable performance by Willie and Yeh was one of the highlights of the three-day celebrations.

Yeh, born in southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung County, was a child prodigy who went on to study at the Mozart Academy in Salzburg, Austria, and to later learn from world-class masters such as Hans Leygraf, Kurt Leimer and Jacob Lateiner.

Wille is a German who came to Taiwan at the age of 23 to teach, soon after he graduated from Staatlich Hochschule Fur Musik Hannover.

SOURCE

Piano duo from Taiwan meets pope before Vatican concert (Radio Taiwan International)

Piano duo from Taiwan meets pope before Vatican concert (e-Taiwan News)

VIDEO

Wille / Yeh 魏樂富- 葉綠娜 Poulenc Concerto for two pianos 1st mvt. (YouTube) (1983 Video)