Jieming Tang Pays it Forward with Music

15 year-old violinist and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Jieming Tang (Show 251) found a “second home” with the parishioners at Saint Colman Catholic Church in Cleveland, OH – their support was truly helpful during his transition to the United States. Jieming shares more below:

As newcomers to America from China, everything was new to us, and settling down and adapting to the totally new environment was very difficult in the first couple of years. We always got kind help from the parishioners when we were in need. For example, most of our furniture was given by them. When we were moving to a new apartment, many of them offered to drive their trucks for transporting, free of charge. Our bikes were stolen four times, and they always gave us bikes immediately afterwards. Everybody in the community was very kind and friendly to us, and we were so lucky to have all of them. They made us feel at home and involved, not feeling lonely and isolated like many newcomers do.

When Jieming heard about the church’s recent financial struggles, he wanted to find a way to give back to the community that had given him so much. He recorded a collection of beloved classics, such as “Ave Maria” and “Meditation from Thais,” and launched a CD sale in hopes of raising funds for the church. Over 900 copies of the CD were sold in just two weeks, raising over $1,000 for Saint Colman! The CD is still available for purchase on the church website.

We asked Jieming to share more about his experience…

FTT: What inspired you to record your own CD?

Jieming: Once after Mass, I had been chatting with Father Bob in jest, when he said since so many people enjoyed my music very much, maybe I could consider recording a CD. My eyes immediately lit up at the idea….St. Colman Church was facing capital shortages and had just begun a campaign to keep the church open. I had been thinking about doing something to give back to this community which had helped me in a big way, as well as to promote classical music. Why not record a CD for sale, with the proceeds donated to the Church’s capital campaign, to achieve these goals?

FTT: Who else was involved with this project?

Jieming: I (reached out to) Sister Mary Beth Gray, who is the music minister at the church, about this idea the next time I met her. She was very excited about this idea and was very supportive of it. We (decided to) make the recording in late Fall, so we would have enough time to prepare for it. The CD would then be ready in time for the Christmas season.

FTT: Walk us through the steps you had to take with this process…

Jieming: There were numerous things to consider: music selection, recording place and engineers, CD cover design, pianist/organist, mastering/post-production, duplication, marketing, etc. I made a list of 20 possible pieces and discussed with Sr. Mary Beth several times. Finally we narrowed it down to 12 pieces, which was a decent amount for a CD. The repertoire comprises mostly easy-listening classical music, with some religious music and technically complicated music.

After a lot of communication and coordination with the relevant parties, we finally settled the recording dates on November 16 and 17, which were the earliest available times of Kulas Hall. It is at Cleveland Institute of Music, and has excellent acoustics and an organ.

FTT: How did everything turn out?

Jieming: The 1,000 copies of CDs finally came out for sale on December 10 after months of hard work and hundreds of emails. We were all extremely excited about it. The sales were better than we had expected. Several hundred copies had been pre-ordered by the community and my schools. By Christmas Eve, more than 900 copies had been sold in just two weeks! I have received a lot of positive reviews from the buyers. Here is a note sent to me from one of them:

Jieming, I have been selling your CDs at my Beauty Salon and a client purchased 3 CDs yesterday after listening to your music. He left the Salon and returned shortly after with this gift [an exquisite Hohner harmonica] for you. He is also a musician. He said to have fun & enjoy!

FTT: What did you learn from this project? 

Jieming: I learned how to face challenges and overcome difficulties. I also realized how wonderful, loving, and helping others are, and how joyful it is to bring others music and to serve others. This project was one of the most challenging things in my life. Because of my heavy schoolwork and busy schedule at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, finding time to practice the repertoire was always a struggle. Sometimes I felt overwhelmed and exhausted, but after the project was finally completed successfully, it was one of the happiest times of my life