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En-Ting Hsu
Anticipated graduation year: May 2023
UMKC degree program: DMA in viola performance
Hometown: Tainan City, Taiwan
En-Ting Hsu discovered at a young age the power of exposure to music and the way it can change a life.
It happened for her as a child in Taiwan. Now she is making it happen for children in Kansas City.
Her parents, both music lovers, took her to sit in the audience for a Master Class being conducted there by Scott Lee, now associate professor of viola at the UMKC Conservatory.
The 12-year-old En-Ting was awestruck – and launched onto a musical career that led her to pursue an undergraduate music degree at National Taiwan Normal University, then a Master of Music from Indiana University Bloomington.
When it came time to choose a doctoral program, “I Googled to see where (Lee) teaches.”
Once she enrolled at UMKC, Lee introduced her to his brother, Jackie Lee, a UMKC alumnus and artistic director of Heartland Chamber Music. She participated in the organization’s summer music festivals. Five years ago, when Heartland launched its String Sprouts program, a free music education program designed for underserved children ages 3 - 8, Hsu was hired as the lead violin teacher.
Bev Chapman, a former local television news reporter, has spent the past five years tracking the progress of the youngsters under Hsu’s tutelage for a recently completed documentary film.