Ting-Wei Chang, clarinetist, educator, and founder of the Lumos Ensemble, has been helping students improve their musical skills throughout North Texas. As this month's feature, we interviewed her about her thoughts on live classical music for children.
Why is it important that audiences experience live music?
Live music creates something that recordings simply can't—it creates a shared human experience. For children especially, a first live concert can be transformative. As both a performer and teacher, I've seen students discover a genuine love for music because of a single live performance.
Many tell me they never thought they liked classical music until they experienced it in person.
Can you tell me about your new annual community event, "A Musical Journey Around the World"?
The series grew naturally out of my work as both a performer and educator, as well as my experience leading Lumos Ensemble. Over the years, I've met many people who were curious about classical music but felt it wasn't really for them. I started thinking: What if a classical concert felt genuinely welcoming to everyone?
That idea eventually became A Musical Journey Around the World, a community concert series designed to make classical music more welcoming and accessible. Each program brings together music from different cultures—Taiwanese folk melodies, European classical works, Latin American music, film music, and more—to show that music can connect people across languages and traditions.
One of my goals is to use music people already know and love as a doorway into classical music. When audiences hear themes from Studio Ghibli films or Pirates of the Caribbean performed live, they realize classical instruments aren't unfamiliar or intimidating—they're already part of the stories they've grown up with. Once that barrier begins to disappear, audiences often become much more open to discovering traditional classical repertoire as well.
My vision is to grow this series into a long-term community tradition in North Texas—one that brings together families from different backgrounds through music that feels familiar, meaningful, and welcoming. I believe everyone is a potential music lover; sometimes they simply need the right door to walk through.