Marking their very first trip to Corpus Christi, Texas, twin brothers Jen-Yu and Jen-Ting Chien brought sounds of their culture and prodigy to students and audiences at Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi.
Even though it's a 17-hour minimum flight away from Taiwan to Corpus Christi, the brothers said the South Texas "City By the Sea" felt like home.
“Oh, it's beautiful,” Jen-Ting said.
“Yeah, we just arrive and see the ocean [it] was like, 'Oh my God!' very good place,” Jen-Yu said
“Yeah, you know, our last stop was in Indianapolis, and it was cold. Freezing. And we got here, oh my God, I feel home,” Jen-Ting added.
Used to being in sync both as musicians and identical twins, younger brother by eight minutes Jen-Yu described their personality differences.
“Jen is more outgoing, and I'm more introvert, but more or less, we have different personality, but we can also work together as a balance," Jen-Yu said.
”And I think I like to play drums more, and he likes to play melody more, so we are kind of like a very special combination of different music style,” Jen-Ting said.
During their performances the twins can be seen playing a variety of percussion instruments from toms and cymbals to sharing a single marimba, swapping places to reach a different side of the instrument without missing a beat.
It’s a talent that TAMU-CC percussion professor Dr. Caleb Pickering said cannot be overstated.
“The students are just so lucky to have them," he said. "I mean it's just such a rare event to get a duo of this quality, let alone to the States, but to Corpus Christi. We brought in, basically, what I would say is like one of the top three of percussion duos that are alive today, and it's just fantastic that we were able to get them here and on campus and to work with the students."
One of those students was senior Andi Lopez. He played for the twins in a masterclass held for the percussion department.
“I got to play one of my favorite pieces. It's a tango by Pius Cheung called, 'Verano Porteno,' he said. " It was really interesting. Hearing Like, a different perspective from two different people about my piece. . . and their interpretation on something that I've worked with for years now, right? So it was really something that I enjoyed, that was, like, you know, kind of a life changing experience.”
In addition to sharing technical knowledge, Deputy Director from the Taiwan Ministry of Culture based in Houston, Liam Ling, said the brothers are doing important work encapsulating Taiwanese culture for international audiences.
“You can hear, that they are trying to combine some various influence from the music and the culture into their songs," he said. "So I think that is pretty much similar with Taiwan, because we are kind of influenced by many different culture around our neighbor country, like China or the Southeast Asia or even United States, actually. . . So, from their music, you can kind of feel like get a sense of Taiwan with multiple cultural influence in our culture. So I think that will be a good way to introduce the Taiwan to everyone.”
The twins will continue their tour of the United States with their next stop in Houston to help bring people together through music.