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By Dennis Arp

Who knows, maybe Grace Fong’s passion for the piano was born even before she was. After all, she was in her mother’s womb, snug against the keyboard, as her mom played her college graduate recital.

“I think I came out listening to music,” says Fong, Chapman’s new director of keyboard studies for the Conservatory of Music in the College of Performing Arts. “I don’t remember a life without music, and I can’t imagine my life without it.”

Fong has played to acclaim in North America, Europe and Asia, even as she has nurtured a dream of mixing a classical performance career with the rewards of teaching. At Chapman, she is living that dream while she also represents the high caliber of faculty being attracted to the conservatory.

“When I heard about the position, I related Chapman to very high standards,” says Fong, who earned the Renaissance Scholar Prize as an undergraduate at USC and who received her Master’s of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music.

“I’m California born and raised, so I love Chapman’s location. And when I met the faculty, it all seemed to come together.”

As she teaches private piano and other classes in the Chapman conservatory, she is also picking a new repertoire for solo and chamber dates. She will play on campus as well as in Portland, Seattle, Cleveland and in Asia.

“Wait till you hear her,” enthuses CoPA Dean William Hall. “Her talent is extraordinary.”

Reviewers have described Fong as “a true musical colorist” and an artist of “rare eloquence and grace.” In 2003, when she gave her debut recital at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., The Washington Post remarked: “Fong played with an easy elegance...painting impressionistic landscapes...landing her notes gently on the ear like snowflakes.”

In 1997, Fong won the Grand Prize in piano from the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts Talent Search, and she performed at the Kennedy Center. She was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and received a medallion from President Clinton at the White House.

“He asked me a few questions, and I had a hard time getting any answers out,” Fong recalls. “It was just such an honor.”

More recently, Fong performed with Chapman colleague Louise Thomas at Carnegie Hall, and in 2006, she was a prize winner at the prestigious Leeds International Pianoforte Competition in Britain.

“It felt really good to represent the U.S. and to be the only woman to make it to the finals,” she says. “It was an experience I can share with students and help them prepare for the challenges of competition.”

Fong teaches a lot by demonstration, as she was taught by her mentors, Sergei Babayan and John Perry.

“They’ve balanced teaching with performance careers, and theirs are exactly the steps I want to follow. Now I get a chance to follow those steps at exactly the place I want to be.”