When Wen Chin Liu-Young was growing up in Malaysia her mother wanted her to be a pharmacist, or at least pursue a career in the sciences likes much of her family.
But Liu-Young followed a different path: music. Now she is in her third season as artistic director for Heritage Chorale, which kicks off its new season on Saturday with a concert in River Forest.
Getting from Malaysia to the Chicago area was more than just transversing the miles. It was convincing her family to allow her to pursue her passion.
She began taking piano lessons at age 7. Though Liu-Young was, like her brothers, also good in the sciences, her heart wasn’t in it.
“I told my mom I don’t think I have any interest in memorizing medicine names.” Liu-Young recalled. After Liu-Young explored a couple of other non-musical careers (economics, accounting), her mother let her daughter follow her heart and pursue a career in music.
Liu-Young earned her bachelor’s degree in Malaysia and then came to the United States to study chorale music in 2009 at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, where she got her master’s degree. She also studied at the University of Iowa.
Liu-Young said life in the American Midwest is very different than in tropical Malaysia “I love the fall here because I’d never seen changing colors on the trees growing up. It is so beautiful. And then winter is also pretty. It’s just cold,” she said.
Liu-Young moved to Chicago with her husband in 2022 and soon after she became the artistic director of the Heritage Chorale. She is also an adjunct faculty at Benedictine University in Lyle, a pianist at the Lutheran Church of the Cross in Arlington Heights (where she also works with their small choir) and is the music academy supervisor at Project 88 Music Academy in Berwyn. She is also an administrative assistant at the Concordia Lutheran Church, the ELCA Concordia Church in Chicago.
It is a busy schedule that leaves Liu-Young breathless. But she is following her bliss.
These days she is busy preparing the Heritage Chorale for their fall concert, “Life is an Art Form: A Choral Celebration” (Saturday, November 16, at 7:30 at Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest and Sunday, November 17, at 4 p.m. at Grace Episcopal Church, Oak Park). This is Heritage Chorale’s 40th anniversary.
To celebrate, the chorale commissioned a new work celebrating, Norbert Teclaw. Who founded the community-based Heritage Chorale in 1984 with his wife Nancy Teclaw and a group of other choral singers in Oak Park.
The piece they are doing, “Norb: Life as an Art Form,” was written by the Emmy Award winning composer (and former Oak Parker) Alex Wurman.
Wurman had known Teclaw growing up in Oak Park. He first met Norbert Teclaw when he was 7 or 8 years old, and his older siblings had Teclaw as a teacher at the OPRF High School.
Teclaw was a teacher at OPRF, a faculty member at an experimental progressive educational program at the high school (dubbed the Experimental Program, or XP).
“Norb was not directly influential on my music, but he was certainly influential on the way I view the world. He was a big fan of Buckminster Fuller. When my brother was in high school, he made a geodesic dome for Norb’s geometry class. And it was about four feet in diameter, and it was my personal play toy in my backyard.
“Norbert actually wasn’t an actual teacher of mine. But he was a presence in my everyday life. I would see him every day. And we would, even if we didn’t talk, it was just a glance that he could give me. Norbert, you know, just has a distinctive vibe to him. He was a teacher. He found innovative ways to show students things that changed their lives. He founded the Heritage Chorale because he wanted to bring the community up to the fore.”
Wurman said that he enjoyed working with Liu-Young on the piece. “She’s like a musical scientist, a spiritual musical scientist. And so it’s been really fun to go back and forth with her.”