Summer 2024 Newsletter: The 53 Haydn
The 53 Haydn
An interview with pianist & Chozen-ji student Katy Luo
Pianist Katy Luo practicing Haydn’s sonatas in the Kyudo Dojo during 2024 Summer Sesshin.
Katy Luo is a pianist and lecturer in music at the University of Hawaii West Oahu who frequently performs with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra. In October, Katy is planning a training event and "un-performance" at Chozen-ji of all 53 of composer Joseph Haydn's piano sonatas in one day.* While other professional and concert pianists have played all the sonatas over four or five days, nobody is documented as having played them all back to back, which Katy expects to take approximately 12 hours.
Chozen-ji: What is your background as a musician?
Luo: I have an usual musical upbringing. When my family immigrated to the United States from Taiwan, we struggled financially. Because I couldn't afford music lessons, I had to join a music program for low-income kids and as a result received some unique training. Instead of entering competitions like most young adults who are serious about a career in music, I played a lot of Chamber Music, sang in a Gospel Choir, and studied conducting and composition. After high school I went to Oberlin Conservatory of Music and received a Doctorate from the University of New York at Stony Brook.
Chozen-ji: What brought you to Chozen-ji?
Luo: I started coming to Chozen-ji shortly after finishing Chemotherapy in September 2021. Before my diagnosis, I was already meditating regularly, and I wanted to deepen that practice knowing that it was what kept any feeling of devastation at bay from the moment I discovered my illness to the end of my treatment. My training began with Beginning Zazen, then progressively included Okyo, Tai Chi, Shakuhachi, and Sesshin.
Chozen-ji: What made you decide to play all 53 of Haydn's sonatas in a row?
Kamei Sensei and two students practicing Kyudo during sesshin while Katy Luo plays the piano.
Luo: I started to take a strong interest in Haydn’s music after the late Julius Levine (bass professor at SUNY Stony Brook) said to me in one of our coaching sessions: “Haydn is a composer whose time has not yet come.” Even though logically that statement doesn't make sense since Haydn is practically a household name in the Classical Canon, I found that I agreed with him instantly. That encounter led me to continuously engage with Haydn’s Piano Sonatas in the last 25 years, and there’s always been a part of me that wanted to learn them all.
The idea of doing this at Chozen-ji came pretty organically. For one, I've been quite disenchanted with the standard concert venues and the status quo in programming concerts for entertainment for some time. Second, training at Chozen-ji and being in its surroundings change the way you look at things and want to experience life. It inspired me to want to engage with my craft in a new way, and as 'A Way'—where you take something, engage with it deeply and with discipline, and never give up no matter what.
Chozen-ji: What are you hoping to get out of this?
Luo: In all honesty I don't know what's going to happen at the finish, but the not knowing is what I look forward to the most! What I do know is that by treating it as rigorous Chozen-ji training that goes on for 12+ hours, I will have at least attempted to create a condition for transformation that will be very valuable for my growth.
What if every moment of every note feels like a new experience? What if I go in and out of boredom but, through it, find new expression? What if I hear sounds transforming into new sounds I've never heard before?
“What if every moment of every note feels like a new experience? What if I go in and out of boredom but, through it, find new expression? What if I hear sounds transforming into new sounds I’ve never heard before?”
Training at Chozen-ji kind of does something to you. A lot of things that don't make sense otherwise make total sense to us. I realized that this doesn't make sense as a concert event, but as training, it makes total sense to me. To me, there's a lot of value in sticking to something, to taking something very simple and seeing all of its different facets.
Chozen-ji: You already played all 53 sonatas during this last summer sesshin. How was that experience?
Luo: I didn't think I was going to be able to do it, but then I was done before I thought I would be. I even finished before all-night training on Saturday! I was done in the afternoon and I realized, "My God! I just finished book three. I actually played all three books."
Chozen-ji: What do you think the biggest challenge of playing all 53 back to back, in one day, will be?
Luo: Fatigue, I think. Both mental and visual. Also, because it's all one genre and one composer, it will be challenging to maintain interest and freshness. I may start to feel drained because I'm just tired of hearing the same kind of music. It will be a great challenge to see if I can manage to tune into a space where everything feels like a new thing I've never seen before, taking one note at a time and like everything is happening as a new experience. It will be the ultimate experience to feel that for 12 hours straight.
It's hard to describe but because of my training at Chozen-ji, I feel that I live life more. I don't see it like a movie, just watching life go by. I feel more like I'm just really in it, even when there's nothing happening. For example, when we go through sesshin, we may just sit there and feel that nothing is happening. But we can transcend that and just feel ourselves breathing and feel the fact that we're alive. And if that's all we realize, that's fine. Everything is fine.
*Collections of Joseph Haydn’s sonatas often include 9 additional works that are either fragments or have been identified as being written by others. The total number of known, complete piano sonatas written by Haydn is 53.