Tsao You-Whai Dr Music Research Center

So Van D. asked a couple months ago what my milestone review would be? I think it was at 400, but I went and passed quickly and realized that the next one I would hit would be 500. I couldn’t think of anything until one day I found someone had created this listing (not me of course). At that time, I knew I would write a review here for #500.
May of 2002, my parents decided I needed to play the piano and had asked their friends, and we took the trek from the Inland Empire to Alhambra almost every Saturday for 10 years (and then some). At first I was young, naïve. Piano? Why? Just because it made you think better-​erererer? Because it was an asian thing to do? But to no avail. Piano it was. At the beginning it was easy. Do you know your notes? How to play? How to read them? It was simple enough. Fast forward a year or two later, it started getting a little harder. We had decided to go the American way and go with CM (Certificate of Merit) testing rather than the British way, which for tests, you got to sing. YAY. Remembering most of the younger years, I remember playing and having fun from April-​July. Those were the months you got to enjoy because you got to play random songs for fun, for practice. August-​December though was hard. That was when you had to start prepping songs. You had to test for the next level. You needed to play a certain amount of pieces, memorized at least 1, and present that to someone in their home (usually a proctor/​pianist in their own regard). Jan-​March was for theory testing, playing for the person, Festivals (optional, but basically trying to get a rating of Superior so that you could get trophies every so often, twice if you got the Superior rating). And so the cycle was born.
Over the years, our schedule flipped and flopped. We had started at 12.30−2.30 on Saturdays, and went to times of 8 – 10 or 9 – 11 or 10 – 12 (most of the time it was 10 – 12) because of people quitting, changing times, or passing level 10. It was fun getting early because it meant going home earlier!
I remember one time she had accidentally gotten a scrape on her foot on something metal or something, so she left our session early to get a tetanus shot.
She had always been proud of her daughter, as she was. Actually I don’t know if I should even go in deets here, because… well. I’ll leave at that. She was really proud of her daughter, like a proud mom would be, always mentioning her. It was sweet.
Another story, so my sister always drew and love drawing. She was good. I remember I drew a crap drawing and put in Dr. «Chow’ rather than Tsao and she laughed it off and hung it up for a week or so. I found that funny (because that’s how you pronounced it– I guess so did she).
Dr. Tsao pushed you to your limit, and then some. She was angry when you couldn’t do what she had asked, sometimes giving up on a piece because clearly it was not meant for you. I had that once. I could never play gracefully and fast and she had given me a fast piece… Oh the talks that I had from her. But she knew that she had to get you ready for your level up test. You had to excel, because the student is ALWAYS a representation on how a teacher is. Shows how a teacher performs, teaches, lets her interpretations be run. It was a struggle sometimes, especially in those ten years, there were times that you couldn’t, just couldn’t practice that week.
I’m going to end this with some more «stories».
I remember going to Jack in the Box/Carl’s Jr a LOT before or after class. It was our life. My mom always shopped in SF Superstore, and I knew a lot about the San Gabriel area, which is good because it’s not some place that’s too too close to where I live. Even had Newport Seafood (no review because it has been years since I had done that).
I also remember she went to my grandma’s funeral. It was really nice of her, like INSANELY nice of her. Because she was a teacher and she had other students. We had cancelled class on her that week, but I guess she took time out of her day to come out to the funeral and pay her respects (the two had met and talked before, but there was a mini language barrier– grandma spoke canto/​old canto, Dr. Tsao spoke Mandarin) so it was really extremely nice of her to come. And the bigger part? This was right before the Festival, 2 weeks exactly. The Festival is where she sent all her students to play 2 pieces to get that Superior rating– and was her busiest time, like tax season for CPAs. And she still went.
After I had quit, I still saw her when my sister played (a year later?). She was getting older. She started asking if I had a gf, looked handsome, got taller. But then she had gotten eye problems, got blind. She started worrying. But the time came where she was blind, couldn’t see anymore. However, the worry, the hatred of being blind took a toll on her.
She would pass away a few months later.
May you rest in peace and your students carry on your legacy.