Blogfinger

By Mary Walton

Two Christmases ago, pianist Xiaoyi Niu was in Ocean Grove with her husband, George Cannon III, celebrating the holiday with his parents, George Jr. and Leslie Cannon.

But Xiaoyi had a musical competition coming up soon in Canada. The prospect made her restless. “I couldn’t relax without practicing.” Practicing required a piano and there was none in the Cannon household. “Leslie suggested calling the art center.”

It turned out the Jersey Shore Art Center possessed not just any old piano but a Yamaha concert grand in perfect condition. And board president Herb Herbst graciously made it available to Xiaoyi.

There was one problem, however. the Art Center wasn’t heated. “It was freezing,” she told Blogfinger. Swathed in sweaters, she practiced in the cold — six hours a day for a week. “At first you can’t move your fingers. But after 30 minutes your hands warm up.”

Xiaoyi Niu

So it was that recently, when she and violinist Tao Zhang were discussing possible venues for a concert, she thought of the Art Center. “Ocean Grove has this beautiful art center,” she told him. “It has this wonderful piano.” She realized it would be a way to show her gratitude for Herbst’s generosity.

This coming Sunday, at 3 p.m., the pair will be on stage for a concert featuring works by Beethoven, Massenet, Rachmaninoff and John Williams, who composed the theme from Schindler’s List. Admission is free. (The theater will be heated.)

Xiaoyi (pronounced “show,” as in shower, “yi”) grew up in Shanghai, where her father held a government job. On the side, he played the clarinet. Chinese parents in general place a high premium on a musical education, and that was especially true of her father. Said Xiaoyi, “I had no toys growing up. I had the piano. That’s how we value that kind of education.” After high school she studied at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris. She arrived speaking no French. Now she is sufficiently fluent that she taught music in a French elementary school on the West Coast.

Tao Zhang

Xiaoyi and George met in 2001 in Shanghai, where he was on business, and married three years later in Paris. They moved to the United States in 2006, and Cannon earned an MBA at UCLA. When he got a job in San Francisco, Xiaoyi enrolled in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. It was there that she met Tao Zhang, now a graduate student at the Yale School of Music. Last summer Cannon accepted a position in New York and the couple moved to Jersey City. She and Zhang usually find a way to practice weekly.

The pieces in the Sunday program are ones “I really love,” Xiaoyi said. All are characterized by beautiful melodies — easy to listen to, she said, and perfect for a Sunday afternoon.

Editor’s note: Although admission is free, a “free offering” will be held to benefit the Culinary Center for the Visually Impaired and Special Needs Individuals.

MICHELE GARRUTI   Theme from Schindler’s List