2018.1209
Alumna Le Keng Tops at Two International Vocal Contests
Alumna, Soprano, Le Keng, graduated in 2008, received two first prizes at International Vocal Contests. The first one is the International Vocal Competition at Ningbo in October and now she gained the first prize, the best singer for Dvorak piece and the best Baroque music singer at the 53rd International Antonin Dvorak Singing Competition at Karlovy Vary. Le Keng's interpretation of Rusalka amazed the audience. When presenting the award, Dvorak's nephew praised that if there's Rusalka in the real world, it must be like this!
She also got the chance to play the leading roles of Un ballo in maschera and Aida by Verdi. She said that she faces tremendous pressure when joining competitions when there's many outstanding vocalist out there, but all the hard work paid off when she was praised by the nephew of Dvorak. Le Keng says that it's defiantly hard for Taiwanese singers to find a career Europe. It's very competitive and challenging in singing a well as in language. For example, she was appointed to sing in Czech after she received the prize. She has to find a tutor to correct her pronunciation.
Le Keng, now 32, is the student of the retired Professor Ren Rong. She started to learn piano and flute at the age of 9 and was later encouraged to sing. She then switched her major to singing. The year marks the tenth year that Keng started to live in Italy. She's about 170cm tall and feels tall among Taiwanese women. When she joins the competition, she often has to wear high heels so that she won't look short compared to western vocalists. She said that when she went to China for the vocal competition, her goal was to be the runner-up because she heard that it's common that in competitions held in China, the champion will be given to contestant from China. Out of her surprise, many netizens shared the video of her performance in the final and she was recognized by the organizer.