Yen-Hua Wang

Yen-Hua Wang: soloist and team player

Yen-Hua Wang’s first musical experience was at the piano when she was in primary school. From the beginning, she chose pieces she loved to play – a valuable memory, as she points out.

Yen-Hua Wang’s parents run a restaurant in Taipei. When travelling by car, they sing Taiwanese pop songs together. They support their daughter’s musical goals from the very beginning.

At high school, Yen-Hua Wang – like many others – learns to play the harmonica. During her studies, she founded her first own harmonica ensemble. After playing solo on both the piano and the harmonica for many years, she enjoys making music with others. At the same time, she also takes part in competitions as a soloist.

Wild sounds
Yen-Hua Wang finds the sound of her instrument, the chromatic harmonica, wild. Sometimes the harmonica sounds like a violin, sometimes like a wind instrument. Overall, however, it radiates the wildness that is inherent in every single person.

She considers herself a pretty optimistic person and believes that no matter what happens, as long as she keeps playing the harmonica. She won’t be too far off the mark.

One woman and five men 
Yen-Hua is the only woman in the Sirius Harmonica Ensemble, which is mostly made up of male members. While traditional views often place women in supporting roles, Yen-Hua disagrees. She also founded a harmonica ensemble called Punch, where she often plays the lead melody.

Through this experience, she believes women should not be limited to secondary roles in a harmonica group, as these roles should depend on personal choice.

Despite being the only female member of Sirius, Yen-Hua doesn’t want her presence to drastically change the band’s identity. She respects the unique playing styles of each member and prefers to maintain the original character of the group. She feels that her current role in Sirius suits both her and the band well, allowing her to contribute while preserving the band’s essence

Diverse music projects
In addition to her two harmonica ensembles, Yen-Hua also collaborates with musicians playing different instruments. As a musician, she is always looking for new challenges and opportunities to deepen and refine her playing. Regarding the pursuit and growth in music, for her, there is no end. She has been playing with Brazilian guitarist Jose Fernando Seifarth since 2023. Both regularly record videos on various musical genres, including Taiwanese pop music and classical gypsy jazz. At the Jazz Manouche Festival in Brazil in 2024, to which Yen-Hua was invited, she performed with various musical formations and was celebrated for this.

Yen-Hua Wang’s future lies in music, she says: from classical to bossa nova and pop to jazz songs, which she would like to play and thus develop her improvisation skills.