Meet Wenting Kang
Wenting Kang will join our viola faculty for the 2026 season.
Tell us about your early years. What were you like as a child, and when did you become serious about studying music?
I was a very active child with various interests, born in a music-loving yet non-musician family. I was drawn to music early on, and one day I saw a girl playing violin on TV and was mesmerized. My father bought me a violin in just a few days, which is one of the best gifts I have received. I started to be certain and serious about studying music when I was about 12 years old.
Who were some of your important early mentors?
Among the inspiring figures in my early years of studies were my first viola teacher, Professor Changhai Wang at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, and later Liangsheng Chen, a Swiss-Chinese conductor who came back to China regularly to work with young musicians. Later on I had the privilege of working with the renowned violists Kim Kashkashian and Nobuko Imai.
Do you have a favorite performance hall or place to perform?
Each hall has its own personality, and each experience is always quite unique. Among many beautiful halls, what stands out in my mind now are Jordan Hall of New England Conservatory in Boston, Elma Center of Art in Israel, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Phoenix Hall in Osaka, and Auditorio Nacional in Madrid.
What is the hardest thing about being a professional musician?
In my opinion, being a musician means a lifelong pursuit of the possible higher aesthetic in music, and delivering it. Besides the daily practice for refining our instrumental skills and applying those to music, facing the gap between the limitation of our present expression and the ideal can be one of the most challenging things. Alongside this, I do think this is a life-long commitment, a beautifully rewarding journey with no real limitations.
Who inspires you and why?
Too many…! For me, inspirations come from not only musicians and other artists, but also each individual’s creative thinking can be inspiring, let alone the cultivated thoughts or actions from some extraordinary human beings. If there is a common characteristic of the people I admire, it would be being truly authentic, humble, and courageous.
What are your favorite foods or restaurants?
After living outside of China for quite a few years, I find my taste for my favorite food leans more and more towards food from my hometown, Hunan Province of China. Nostalgia in the background aside, I also love Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish cuisine.
What do you do when you are not teaching, practicing, or performing?
These days, it is mainly being with my family. I treasure the time with them. Sometimes, even just going out with my son feels amazingly recharging. If my family is not with me, I would read, watch movies, meet friends, do some yoga, and simply clean up my space.