From Texas to Taiwan

Thanks to Trinity University musicprofessor Chia-wei Lee, D.M.A., the talented voices of Trinity students are extending all the way to places like Taiwan, Japan, China, and more.

Lee is a talented baritone vocalist who originally came to the United States from Taipei, Taiwan, first earning his master's and doctorate, then establishing both a professional singing career (he's performed in New York City) and an ongoing, two-decade run as a beloved member of Trinity's faculty. And in those 20-plus years, he's taken (at least) a hundred Trinity students, plus various faculty members, to perform, study, and grow on journeys into a variety of Asian countries.

The trips are short (the longest are about 10 days), but their impact is powerful and long-lasting for the students involved.

"We bring these students to Asian countries for performance experience but also to experience a cultural exchange," Lee says. "One-third of Trinity students will study abroad for six months or perhaps a whole year. But if students don't want to study abroad for that long, this gives them a chance to experience the foreign culture for a short term."

Fellow music professor Carl Leafstedt, Ph.D., who accompanied Lee on one of the trips in December 2023, hails his colleague as a "one-man dynamo for international diplomacy at the grassroots level," noting that these trips also serve as crucial relationship builders between Trinity and many Asian universities and schools, while students returning from the trips "come back bubbling with enthusiasm."

Lee's trips are a total immersion, both in a new way of performing and practicing music as well as a new way of living life. Using his unique set of connections and contacts, Lee is able to help coordinate week-long workshops and masterclasses with various schools in each host country, where Trinity students get to learn from, practice, and perform alongside new artists (while Lee also puts on a masterclass of his own for the host institutions.) And students are shown around a new city by their new musical friends to cap off the trip.

For Trinity Tigers like Matthew Payton '26, Patricia McDonald '27, and Lucia Ridlen '26, these trips have been truly transformative.

Payton, an accountingmajor from Dallas who loves playing the marimba and singing with the Trinity Chamber Singers, has been on two of Dr. Lee's trips: the first in March 2023 to Japan and Taiwan, and then a return visit to Taiwan in January 2024. He enjoyed performing at several universities as well as a city government.

"This was an incredible experience to witness a completely different culture and to be embraced by so many people that don't even speak the same language as me," Payton says. "Singing is a universal language that can express so many emotions, whether or not you understand the words that are being sung."

McDonald is a classicsmajor from Dallas and a talented vocalist who loves performing both solo opera and chamber choir. On a recent trip with Lee to Taiwan, McDonald says she enjoyed the chance to broaden her musical perspective.

"I was very excited to get to perform and collaborate with people who speak a different language," McDonald says. "And even beyond the music, when you immerse yourself in the food, the language … when you connect to people (internationally), it helps you think differently in all things, in your studies, in your personal life, in your political life. I think it really opens up more awareness of the way that different people's worlds look."

And Ridlen, a philosophyand economicsdouble major on Trinity's pre-law track, says Lee's trips are also simply unmissable opportunities to work more closely with a professor who cares so much about his students.

Ridlen, whose older sister actually took lessons from Lee at Trinity too, says Lee is an "incredible" mentor.

"He has such high expectations for his students, but not in a way that stresses you out or overwhelms you. The way that I describe his teaching style is that he'll tell you to do something that absolutely makes no sense, but then you try it, and it works, which is really cool," Ridlen says. "He is just such a great guy. He's an incredible teacher but also an incredible mentor to all of his students. It's so fun just hanging out with him and hearing stories about how he came into music when he was younger."

Payton, like many of his classmates, says Lee's mentorship is just as transformative as his trips, regardless of whether a student plans to pursue music professionally. After all, Trinity musicians don't need to be music majors in order to experience incredible performance, development, and international opportunities.

"As someone who has never truly sung as a soloist or as a part of a choir, Dr. Lee has helped me grow immensely. He has told me that he has a passion for finding non-music majors with a passion for singing," Payton says. "One thing I love about having Dr. Lee as my lesson teacher is how personally he gets to know his students. He doesn't just give us lessons to help our voices, but also to help us as individuals. If we are ever having a hard time, we may take the whole lesson time to talk about whatever is bothering us. Dr. Lee has given me so many opportunities to grow as a person and a performer. I feel comfortable calling him a friend rather than just my lesson teacher."

McDonald also notes that Lee cares about his students as people, not just performers. That's why, on these trips, she says, "He works really hard to bring all of his students on at least two trips and to also make sure that they're really good value trips for how much you get to do. These are very affordable trips, considering how long we were there, and he arranged a lot of great activities for us to be involved in outside of just the performances. He also gives us a lot of leeway to explore on our own, which was really awesome."

Lee's work isn't just affecting the lives of Trinity musicians, McDonald says: "It's helping Trinity's voice reach new places."

"I think these trips are definitely going to raise the profile of Trinity because a lot of these students had never really heard of our school, but they definitely will remember it after," McDonald adds.

That's a point of emphasis for Lee: establishing Trinity's musical reputation on an international stage.

"When I came to Trinity in 2003, Trinity was kind of a "local" university that, maybe, some people had heard of outside of Texas, but certainly not heard of in Asian countries-they had no idea what Trinity is," Lee recalls. "But now, I would say the Trinity name, especially for the music performance part, has gained this reputation now, at least in Taiwan and China and Hong Kong. People know about Trinity's music department. They can consider future recruitments for Trinity to bring new students here."

This October, Lee plans to bring a small exchange group of student musicians from Taiwan to campus in San Antonio, where they will perform with a Trinity ensemble. The group also hopes to do a cultural presentation with the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.