A Buddhist orphanage in Myanmar is an unlikely venue for an acclaimed classical pianist who last year made his debut at Carnegie Hall, but for Victor Goldberg that impromptu performance on a cheap electronic keyboard is a highlight of his first Asian tour.
'Not only the children, but also their mentors had never heard of Mozart or Tchaikovsky before, and their reaction to my playing was overwhelming,' Goldberg says. 'It was a very touching experience indeed. It demonstrated to me the power of music, its ability to go directly deep into people's souls, whether they are highly sophisticated listeners or those who are only discovering what music is.'
The Israeli musician's itinerary, organised with the assistance of Israel's Asian embassies and consulates, includes a free Hong Kong performance on January 16 at HKU Space in Kowloon East. The tour has so far taken in performances on the mainland, in Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines, as well as in Myanmar.
'My tour in Asia has included countries with very different musical traditions,' he says. 'In China there are amazing, huge concert halls. In some places, the people are not yet prepared to perceive complex musical pieces, but it was the only country I came to where I saw a poster with a classical pianist advertising consumer products.'
Still only 33, Goldberg has the potential to be a poster boy himself. An acclaimed concert pianist with a number of international awards to his name, including winner of the 2008 Pro Musicis International Award, as early as his teenage years he was compared to the young Vladimir Horowitz, to whom coincidentally he is distantly related.
'However, I was also compared to other great artists with very different performance styles than that of Horowitz, such as Arthur Rubinstein, Dinu Lipatti, and even Glenn Gould, ' says the pianist.