Bill Wade, Post-Gazette photos Yew Choong Cheong, a hearing impaired pianist working on his doctorate at West Virginia University, in a recital hall at the the Creative Arts Center on the Evansdale Campus of WVU.

By Brittany McCandless
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Working toward his doctorate in musical arts at West Virginia University, Yew Choong Cheong has a few things in common with Ludwig van Beethoven.

For starters, they're both talented pianists.

Recently awarded the 2007 International Young Soloists Award by VSA arts, Mr. Cheong, 28, won a $5,000 scholarship to continue music education and an invitation to play the piano at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. VSA arts is an international, nonprofit society for people with disabilities to participate in and enjoy the arts.

	Yew Choong Cheong has won a VSA arts International Young Soloists Award and will preform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Click photo for larger image. Listen In Listen to two audio samples of Yew Choong performing Schubert's 'Wanderer' Fantasy: Sample 1 Sample 2

Then there's the disability. Like Beethoven, Mr. Cheong makes music despite progressive hearing loss affecting both ears.

Mr. Cheong wears a hearing aid, but he cannot use the telephone, and face-to-face conversations are sometimes difficult. On the piano bench, the 88 keys become a form of communication.

"It somehow speaks to me emotionally," he said. "I can respond to what I play. When I communicate with people, it's hard for me to express words. But playing piano, I can express myself better."

As one of four recipients of the international award, Mr. Cheong will use his music on March 21 to speak to the Kennedy Center crowd. He will perform Aaron Copland's Piano Variations and Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6.

"It's a big honor for him," said Peter Amstutz, a piano professor at WVU's College of Creative Arts and Mr. Cheong's piano teacher since 2001. "It's a way for affirming to others with disabilities that they don't have to be held back."

Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Mr. Cheong began piano lessons around age 7 at his mother's urging. Then a viral infection damaged the hearing in his left ear, but he could still hear with a hearing aid.

Mr. Cheong continued to study the piano, but he disliked practicing and taking lessons, and he quit before he reached high school.

Cue Beethoven

Around age 14, Mr. Cheong heard a recording of Beethoven's Bagatelle in E-flat and fell in love. A bagatelle, which means "something of little importance," is a short composition for the piano. Unlike its name, the piece proved to be quite significant; its simple sounds hooked Mr. Cheong on classical music.

"I used to play it over and over," he said. "I couldn't stop. I don't know why -- it just came to me."

He resumed piano lessons in high school and continued to practice after he enrolled in college for computer science. But Mr. Cheong, who owns almost 2,800 CDs of classical music, soon realized he didn't have the same passion for coding as he did for chording.

"After one year, I told myself music is what I really want to do," he said.

Mr. Cheong studied piano for two years with Dr. P'ng Tean Hwa, a former student of Dr. Amstutz, at University College Sedaya International. He was then awarded a full scholarship, followed by graduate assistantships, to continue his studies at WVU in 2001.

Under the tutelage of Dr. Amstutz, Mr. Cheong has flourished. He won the Music Teachers National Association Collegiate Artist Piano Competition in West Virginia in 2002, and the next year he was one of the selected soloists in WVU's annual Young Artists Auditions, for which he played the Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1 with the WVU Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Peter Amstutz, Mr. Cheong's professor of piano at West Virginia University. Click photo for larger image.

But while his musical aptitude improved, his hearing worsened. Mr. Cheong has had major hearing loss in both ears, and in college, doctors found major nerve damage to his ears.

Now Mr. Cheong reads lips in conversations, because people's various intonations make under- standing speech difficult -- just as they did for Beethoven, one of Mr. Cheong's favorite composers.

"I can understand him quite well," Mr. Cheong said. "People say he was trying to avoid social situations, but he just didn't want to face trying to communicate with people. That's similar to me."

For these musicians, it's easier to hear music than conversation.

"Somehow my brain can tell me the difference in sounds, but only on the piano."

Mr. Cheong tried cello but was unable to discern the pitches to tune it correctly; with the piano, he says he relies on the sound quality and pitch. He can hear the center section well but concedes he can't discern between sounds in the highest and lowest octaves on the keyboard.

"When anyone plays, there has to be a sense of intention, of, 'How do we make this dance?' " he said. "You always have to be adjusting what sound is actually coming out to what you imagine will come."

As a graduate assistant, he teaches applied piano to undergraduate students -- and even tunes the instruments.

Using a computer program to help him pick out the pitch, Mr. Cheong works with WVU's piano technician in tuning and maintaining the university's piano inventory. He listens to the vibrations and knows that when the vibration is "calm," the note is in tune.

"I think it's astonishing," Dr. Amstutz said.

As a teacher, Dr. Amstutz wants his students to hear more clearly what they want to express, rather than to copy what he would try to do. Having to rely half on his imagination, Mr. Cheong does just that, Dr. Amstutz said.

"He just loves music so much and that comes through when he plays," he said.

Though his Kennedy Center performance may convince him otherwise, Mr. Cheong does not consider himself a concert pianist. After completing his doctorate next spring, Mr. Cheong plans to teach.

"I want to share my knowledge and passion with the people in my hometown," he said.

"I think education is the most important aspect, especially for my home country. I want to teach them that music is more than entertainment."