Lawrence Today magazine, Summer 2003
Formal piano studies at the age of seven and martial arts training in Tae Kwon Do and Kapkido as a 10-year old sparked a fascination with music and other cultures, particularly those of Asia, in Ansel Wallenfang, '03, that has since grown into a lifelong passion.
Beginning in August 2003, Wallenfang will have a full year to pursue those passions in situ, thanks to a $22,000 fellowship from the Providence, R.I.-based Thomas J. Watson Foundation.
A piano performance major from Appleton, Wallenfang is one of 48 national recipients of a 2003-04 Watson Fellowship, a grant that supports a year of independent travel and exploration outside the United States on a topic of the recipient's choosing. He is the 59th Lawrence student awarded a Watson Fellowship since the program's inception in 1969.
Wallenfang hopes to spend six months each in China and India, beginning in Xi'an, China, with extended stops along the way in Guagnzhou, Ji'nan, Beijing, as well as Calcutta and, eventually, Pune, India. His interests center on two instruments that are indigenous and unique to each country's musical identity: the erhu, China's two-stringed violin, and the tabla, India's famed classical drums.
"My fascination with Asian music and my desire to learn the instruments and the traditions surrounding them run very deep," Wallenfang says. "I vividly remember the first time I heard the tabla, in accompaniment to Ravi Shankar's sitar. Everything seemed to stop. I discovered an ethereal new sound that still speaks to me in a way clearer than anything I have ever known.
"The same is true for the Chinese erhu," he adds. "Its pleasing, distinctive tone conjures a flood of images in my mind of what it is like to live in China."
In addition to learning to play the two instruments, Wallenfang intends to study their historical, cultural, and spiritual roles, examining such basic questions as how they are used today; their role in ceremony, meditation, and performance; the traditions surrounding them; and the regional variations of technique and style in both instruments. His study will include intense practice time with both instruments, associations with musicians and performers at concerts and recitals, and visits to temples and other sacred sites to evaluate the role of music in ceremonial and spiritual life.
"I hope not only to answer these questions but also to carry the essence of these musical traditions and make them a permanent part of my life," says Wallenfang, who has visited China twice in the past year as part of two separate Lawrence study tours supported by a grant from the Freeman Foundation.
[Ed. note: At press time, there was some uncertainty regarding the China component of Ansel Wallenfang's planned research, owing to a U.S. State Department travel advisory related to the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in China. If necessary, Wallenfang will spend the whole year in India.]