Extolled by critics, with a concert agenda covering four continents and tens of thousands of air miles, the saga began rather humbly for pianist Ernest So. Unlike many musicians who can claim to be a child prodigy with a backbreaking father and an ambitious agenda, we fear this is just one of those stolid stories where the pianist played music simply for the fun of it. With nothing more than pure
passion and eagerness, little Ernest pursued his repertory, exams and competitions much like his fuelled passion for his mother’s cooking, never missing a practice session and piano lesson (or his lunch, for that matter). His early achievements, such as winning the Beethoven Trophy or the "Best Performer Award" in Singapore were, nevertheless, worthy of mention; but aside from reading these in third-hand accounts on the internet Ernest is stoically nonchalant about them, just as he was with his neglected high school chemistry and mathematics. He owes his greatest debt, however, to his teachers at the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School in New York City, among whom the most frequently mentioned on his Facebook updates is Jacob Lateiner (1928 – 2010), the renowned Beethoven scholar, pianist, connoisseur and bon-vivant. While updating his knowledge on Beethoven from the erudite wisdom of Lateiner, Ernest’s years at the Juilliard School (or affectionately known as the ‘Yard) also dangerously exposed him to a staggering array of composers and music avoided by most. He was impassioned with the public’s apotheosis of a mere handful “great” composers and inveterate taste in a narrow corpus of musical works, and began exploring and programming “fringe” repertoire in his own recitals, beginning with Scriabin and Medtner, Morton Feldman and Philip Glass, ultimately transforming himself into a maverick pianist that he is so notoriously known for today. On the foundation of classical repertory such as long Beethoven Sonatas and overplayed Chopin Ballades, Ernest tickles the public with music from Latin America, the former Soviet Union, France and Spain, with an indomitable passion in the pre-clunky late-Romantic era. Today, Ernest usually accompanies his performances with vivid soliloquys and with amusing stories about obscure composers and pieces that plunder the imagination of his audiences. Critics have called Ernest’s musical debauchery an evocation of “romanticism and technical brilliance of a 19th century pianist”, and audiences worldwide often Facebook-liked his advocacy in the less-than-ordinary music of Medtner, Bortkiewicz, Stanchinsky, Kapustin, Kazhlayev, Svetlanov; Ropartz, Cras, Séverac, Aubert, Samazeuilh, Wurmser; Mompou, Viñes, Turina, Blancafort, de Grignon; Earl Wild, Antheil, Godowsky, Chasins; Ponce, Gnattali, Mignone, Fernandez, and Guastavino. When not racking up air miles and calling his parents from airport lounges, Ernest is a piano technician and a specialist in piano restoration techniques, currently serving as Chief Technical Consultant for a major piano restorer; he also helps run a charity that builds schools in China, having erected in remote villages thirty-three school buildings to date and raised a scholarship fund for thousands of cute-as-a-button but under-privileged kids; in his spare time he blogs his many adventures on the road and is now in the process of organizing this travel journal. In what little time is left over, Ernest shows a particular inclination towards the sartorial arts, having a wealth of knowledge and experience mingling with only the best bespoke tailors and craftsmen in London, Paris and Naples, who furnish every bit of his wardrobe from suits to shoes to ties and umbrellas.
