Classical music and opera are among my greatest joys outside research. My favorite composer is Richard Wagner, with Bach and Tchaikovsky close behind, and I am especially drawn to passionate, sonically rich works such as Wagner's music dramas (Musikdrama) and the choral symphonies of Beethoven and Mahler. I started playing the violin at 7 and served as concertmaster of the Wuxi Rococo Youth Orchestra.
Below are the composers and works I have heard live, the venues where I heard them, and a few organizations I follow, mostly around San Diego.
Composers
An incomplete list of works I have had the fortune to listen to live:
| Composer | Works |
|---|---|
| Bach | Mass in B Minor, BWV 232, St John Passion, BWV 245, Toccata and Fugue, BWV 565 |
| Bartók | Violin Concerto No. 2 |
| Beethoven | Mass in C Major, Symphony No. 1 & 7 & 8, Violin Concerto, Piano Concerto No. 5, Coriolan Overture, Piano Sonata No. 2 & 9 & 15 & 23 & 27 |
| Bertin | Fausto |
| Bizet | Carmen |
| Brahms | Ein deutsches Requiem, Symphony No. 1 & 2 & 3 & 4, Tragic Overture, Violin Concerto, Piano Concerto No. 2, Piano Trio No. 1 |
| Britten | Peter Grimes |
| Bruckner | Symphony No. 4 & 7 & 9 |
| Copland | Symphony No. 3 |
| Dvořák | String Quartet No. 12 "American", String Quartet No. 13 |
| Handel | Messiah |
| Haydn | Symphony No. 94 "Surprise", String Quartet in B-flat, Op. 76, No. 4 "Sunrise" |
| Khachaturian | Violin Concerto |
| Leoncavallo | Pagliacci |
| Liszt | Réminiscences de Don Juan |
| Orff | Carmina Burana |
| Prokofiev | Piano Concerto No. 2 |
| Puccini | La Bohème, Madama Butterfly |
| Rachmaninoff | Symphonic Dances |
| Ravel | Piano Concerto in G |
| Rossini | The Barber of Seville |
| Saint-Saëns | Symphony No. 3, Violin Concerto No. 3, Piano Concerto No. 5, The Carnival of the Animals |
| Schoenberg | Pelleas und Melisande |
| Shostakovich | Symphony No. 6 & 7 & 8, Festive Overture, Piano Trio No. 2 |
| Schubert | Symphony No. 9, Octet in F |
| Sibelius | Violin Concerto |
| Strauss (R.) | Ein Heldenleben, Salome |
| Stravinsky | The Rite of Spring |
| Suk | Symphony No. 1 |
| Mahler | Symphony No. 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 7, Des Knaben Wunderhorn |
| Mendelssohn | Elijah, Die Hebriden |
| Mozart | Requiem (K. 626), Missa brevis in G (K. 49), Symphony No. 40, Piano Concerto No. 24, Le nozze di Figaro |
| Mussorgsky | Pictures at an Exhibition |
| Tchaikovsky | Symphony No. 4 & 5 & 6, Violin Concerto, Piano Concerto No. 1, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Variations on a Rococo Theme, Piano Trio, Waltz of Flowers |
| Verdi | La Traviata |
| Wagner | Lohengrin, Götterdämmerung |
Venues
A list of venues I have visited to enjoy live music:
| City | Country | Venues |
|---|---|---|
| San Diego, CA | USA | Jacobs Music Center, Civic Theatre, Balboa Theatre, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, Spreckels Organ Pavilion at Balboa Park, All Souls' Episcopal Church / Bach Collegium San Diego, St. Paul's Cathedral, Old Town Theatre |
| La Jolla, CA | USA | The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, Conrad Prebys Music Center at UC San Diego, Mandeville Auditorium at UC San Diego |
| Encinitas, CA | USA | San Dieguito United Methodist Church |
| Washington, DC | USA | Washington National Cathedral, St. Ann Catholic Church |
| Shanghai | China | Shanghai Symphony Hall, Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Shanghai Grand Theatre, He Luting Concert Hall of SHCMusic |
| Nanjing | China | Jiangsu Grand Theatre |
| Changzhou | China | Changzhou Grand Theatre |
| Suzhou | China | Jinji Lake Concert Hall |
| Nishinomiya | Japan | Hyogo Performing Arts Center |
| Leipzig | Germany | Thomaskirche |
| Dresden | Germany | Kathedrale Sanctissimae Trinitatis |
| München | Germany | Frauenkirche (Münchner Dom) |
As the concertmaster of Wuxi Rococo Youth Orchestra, I have performed at Wuxi Grand Theatre, Wuxi Jinkui Park, and Jiangsu Tianyi High School.
As a resident in the San Diego area, I frequently attend performances by:
- $10 student discount balcony tickets (code JMWSTUDENT) are available for San Diego Symphony at the Jacobs Music Center.
- Group, student group, military, and Gen O (under 30) discounts are available for SD Opera.
- Student price is also available for La Jolla Symphony & Chorus concerts.
- Free tickets for UCSD students are available for many ArtPower performances at UC San Diego.
- Student tickets are also offered at the Pacific Symphony in Orange County.
Wagner Playing Cards
This is a deck of playing cards featuring Wagner's operas, designed and typeset in LaTeX. It was created before agentic AI tools became widely available, so all of the styles, including the card frames, corner indices, and the ornamented card back, were designed by hand.
- 2–3: opera houses.
- 4–A: Wagner's operas, with each card depicting a scene, a pair of characters, or a musical motif, such as the Tristan chord, the Ring, and Good Friday from Parsifal.
- Jokers: Richard Wagner (the gray card) and King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Wagner's patron (the colored card).
