Asian Fortune Your source for all things Asian American
By Jennie L. Ilustre
One word describes Muriel Hom, recipient of the Organization of Chinese Americans’ 2014 Trailblazer Award at its gala night on November 2: Unique.
Opera Internationals’ Producer Director Hom is Baldwin Artist, pianist and coach. She has performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and on PBS Television. An international artist, she has also performed in Germany, Austria, Mexico and Taiwan, People’s Republic of China.
Truly one of a kind, she is irreplaceable at Opera International. Just askSenior Vice President Council for International Cooperation David Y. Yao. Yao said Mimi, as her close friends call her, has three important traits. “She is a fireball of energy, she has an intense focus on the objective, and she is never too shy to simply ask for support.”
Ms. Hom is also the president of the D.C. Federation of Music Clubs, vice president of the Organization of Chinese American Women (OCAW), and Music Director of the Hermon Presbyterian Church. All these titles are important. But her favorite title these days is grandmother, and she’s overdue for retirement.
“I was trying to retire since I will be 88 next year,” she said. “But when David Yao asked me to help this promising young singer Huanhuan Ma, I could not refuse. So I presented her at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, which is very helpful to the young singers, and I had her work with my coach.”
In several phone and email interviews with her and her circle of admirers, it was obvious it would be difficult to find a replacement for her. A producer-director would have to have a knowledge of opera and also be a formidable fundraiser. Ms. Hom is a highly-admired Washingtonian who has a reputation for attracting donors and international artists, of bringing music to the community at affordable prices, and developing young singers for decades.
What, indeed, is her secret? She is golden-hearted, and she has a knack for making friends. She recalled: “When I was 16, I worked for my grandmother who owned a restaurant. I became friends with a nice girl who later became the CEO of Li Foundation. Her name is Madeline Li Leong Way. I took her to one of our performances at the Kennedy Center. In the 1990s until 2012, she gave $40,000 a year to Opera International.”
Another time, she shared a sandwich with someone she met. Years later, the woman gave $10,000 to Opera International. To be sure, Ms. Hom keeps helping others with no thought of reward. Nowadays, she’s asking friends to support Hunan Taste in Maryland where she lives.
Opera International
Opera International was launched in 1994. Its twin goals: “To encourage and inspire in young people an appreciation of opera, and to train and prepare aspiring vocalists of all nationalities for operatic careers.”
Ms. Hom has succeeded in achieving these goals with a lot of help from friends, admirers and supporters. She has produced over 16 operas, five vocal operatic galas, and five Kennedy Center concerts. She was honored in Taiwan in 1991 and by OCAW in 1995 for over 60 years of dedication in sponsoring and developing singers and artists.
These are some of the productions under her helm: Operatic Vocal Gala; Dialogues of the Carmelites; Le nozze de Figaro, Otello, Rigoletto; L’Ormindo; Falstaff; II tabarro and Gianni Schicchi; Tosca; I barbiere di Siviglia; Madama Butterfly, and La Bohème.
All productions received rave reviews from The Washington Post and Opera News. The Washington Post praised the August 1997 production with the headline, “At Lisner, a Soaring ‘Butterfly.’” The Baltimore Sun story likewise ran a glowing review: “‘Tosca’ proves that praise for company is well deserved.” The drop headline was also complimentary: “Opera International melds youth, experience for annual performance.” The critic noted, “This first–rate company spares no effort to bring fine opera at prices ranging from $30 to $45.”
Linda Devine, Ms. Hom’s daughter, said she wrote an article in 1992 highlighting the organization’s lofty goals, including “making opera affordable to people who might not be able to afford high-priced tickets.” She added, “It has also helped young talented artists, and inspired children as participants and viewers.”
Opera International’s earliest patron was the Li Foundation, established by the founder of Wah Chang Corporation, the late Dr. K. C. Li and his four brothers in 1944. Its objective was “to promote friendly relations between the United States and China,” with educational exchange as primary activity.
Ms. Hom approached her best friend Madeline Li Leong Way, then CEO of the Li Foundation. She asked for assistance in providing scholarship grants for the Chinese singers, and received a $50,000-grant in 1991. Since then, the Li Foundation has been annually supporting the Fellowship program and the productions of Opera International.
Q & A
Ms. Hom graciously replied by phone and emails about her life and work. Excerpts follow.
As a performer, what is your favorite role and why? Who is your favorite performer?
I have enjoyed my role as accompanist the best, because if you have a fine singer, there is a three-way communication in which you reach a high between you, the singer and the audience. It is a very exhilarating experience. The performer I most enjoyed playing for was Hai-bo Bai. She not only had an exceptionally beautiful voice, she was also an excellent musician and was able to communicate with her audience.
How much does one opera production cost?
The costs of our productions ranged from $50,000 for the first one when we did not have money and had to pay astronomically low fees for the singers, to our last production at The Lisner Auditorium, which was $240,000 for two performances. That cost went up so much because that year, gas prices went up and the sets had to be transported from Calgary, Canada. Most of the productions averaged about $170,000.
Did you get your artistic talents from your father or mother’s side? Anyone who are artists in your own family?
My father played the ukulele and liked to sing opera. He is the only person that I might have been influenced by. I have three children, and they all studied piano with me. Linda, my eldest, has perfect pitch and can play by ear and played well enough to perform on the National Symphony Young Artist program playing a Mozart Sonata. My son retired as a lawyer. I only taught him for three years because I was teaching so much. I had over 100 students a week, including my private teaching. But today, after teaching himself guitar, my son plays and performs with many outstanding jazz singers in the area.
Please tell us more about your family.
I have a wonderful family and a sister, June Tong. She lives in San Francisco, California. But all through these years, she has helped me send out 2,500 flyers and handle all the necessary things for the opera performances. I have seven grandchildren who are very close to each other. I can say I have been fortunate to have such a wonderful life, even though I was orphaned at a very young age, and had to work since I was nine.
What is your message at the OCA Gala Award Night?
I wish to share my award with my OCAW sisters, my family, my friends and all the contributors and the artists of Opera International. I did not accomplish my work alone. As Hillary Clinton has said, “It takes a village.”
Other OCA-DC Honorees
OCA-DC is also honoring two other community leaders: Christian Oh from the APA Film Festival is being honored with the community service award and Professor Janelle Wong from the University of Maryland is being honored with the leadership award.
Christian Oh is the Executive Director of the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival, after finishing a 4 year stint as Executive Director of Kollaboration DC. He received his film education from George Washington University Documentary Center, internships with Adobe at Cannes and Venice Film Festivals, and volunteering and helping with projects with many other non-profits and creatives. Christian was a former writer for the Washington Asia Press newspaper.
Janelle Wong is an Associate Professor of American Studies and the Director of the Asian American Studies Program. Wong is author of Democracy’s Promise: Immigrants and American Civic Institutions (2006, University of Michigan Press) and co-author of two books on Asian American politics. The most recent isAsian American Political Participation: Emerging Constituents and their Political Identities (2011, Russell Sage Foundation), based on the first nationally representative survey of Asian Americans’ political attitudes and behavior.
Wong’s research is on race, immigration, and political mobilization. Her current book project focuses on how growing numbers of Asian American and Latino evangelical Christians will impact the traditional conservative Christian movement and immigrant political participation. The study is based on qualitative interviews, participant observation in Los Angeles and Houston, and analysis of survey data. As a scholar and teacher, Wong has worked closely with social service, labor, civil rights, and media organizations that serve the Asian American population.
