By Lee Hyo-won
Korea Times Correspondent
FORT WORTH, Texas _ Koreans are obsessed with first prizes. During the Olympics, for example, Korea ranks its performance in terms of gold medals rather than the total number of medals. People often console silver or bronze medallists by saying that their achievement was ``just as precious as winning the gold.''
This year, Son Yeol-eum, 23, won the silver medal at the recently held 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. At the previous quadrennial event in 2005, Joyce Yang became the first ever Korean to win a top prize at only 19 years of age.
But considering the nature of the Cliburn, Koreans can forget their fixation with being number one.
``(Yang) is sailing now; she won second prize but in her way she's won first,'' said Maestro James Conlon, who has been coming to the event to conduct the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra opposite young pianists in the competition's concerto round.
``The ultimate prize is the prearranged concerts and management for the next three years. We are choosing someone most capable of fulfilling that prize now. Looking back at the past we can identify among medallists, not just gold medallists, many wonderful pianists who have gone to develop great careers,'' said Richard Rodzinski, president of the Van Cliburn Foundation, citing Yang as an example.
During the past four years, Yang has given over 200 concerts across the United States under the management of top agency Opus 3 Artists. She has appeared with premier ensembles including the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra, and has been praised for her ``impeccable articulation and admirable integrity'' (The New York Times, June 2008).
The 23-year-old met with The Korea Times during the final round of the Cliburn. She made the visit before performing with the neighboring Dallas Symphony Orchestra. ``It's great to be back, and so much has happened in (the past) four years,'' she said. Her girlish bangs from 2005 were gone, and she looked ladylike with her long silky locks and silver stilettos.
``After Van Cliburn, the attention was just huge, it was like going from nobody to somebody, with incredible exposure, overnight. People expect a lot of you _ you're the same but you're expected to be a great pianist, and before they hear you they expect a silver medallist. It's a shocking realization _ it was intimidating and I was just hugely confused,'' she said.
The young pianist agreed with Conlon, saying she was glad she didn't win first place _ she didn't expect to, and if she did she probably ``would have died.'' ``I was still a kid and was expected to do something people praised me for, but I didn't know what that was. I spent the past four years trying to define that and to develop and recognize that,'' she said.
Conlon, who is music director of the Los Angeles Opera and Ravinia and Cincinnati Festivals, said he always takes note of competitors he would like to hire in the future. Yang was one example _ just this summer they will appear together at the Ravinia and Aspen Festivals _ and this year it seems to be Son. The sweeping passions and sinew of Son's playing did not go unnoticed, and the conductor was seen asking for her contact during the competition's closing reception June 7.
``(Son) had an incredible energy and I definitely look forward to working with her,'' he told The Korea Times. Son, who was born and educated almost all her life in Korea, said she felt excited about working in the U.S.
``Van Cliburn opens not many doors but every door. It's about how much you make out of this opportunity,'' said Yang. ``I was so tired (at the end of the competition) but it was just the beginning. It was like being given wings so I could rise above and beyond things I was seeking before _ you can either take those wings and fly or flap and crash down.''
Born in Korea, Yang began playing the piano at age four and moved to New York to attend the pre-college division of the Juilliard School. She continues to live there and studies under Yohaved Kaplinsky, who was a member of the Cliburn jury this year.