Violinist shares stories of great composers

Violinist Kim Joo-hyun talks at the CICI event, Tuesday. / Courtesy of CICI

By Kim Jae-heun

Violinist Kim Joo-hyun gave a lecture on prominent classical composers while performing their music during the Korea Culture Quotient (CQ) event led by the Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI) at the residence of the Kuwait Ambassador in Yongsan, Seoul, Tuesday.

“Music plays such an important role in people’s life,” said Kim. “It is everywhere, even deep inside mountains. Music is the language of the mind and people communicate with it.”

Kim began the lecture with her story of her holiday in Germany and Poland, where she came across a piano-looking swimming pool and a keyboard-like crosswalk. She thought that a twist of an idea in normal life, especially when it’s connected to music, can let people have a break and relax people during their fast-moving modern lives.

The violinist introduced three great composers _ Johan Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) and Johannes Brahms (1833-1897).

Kim played two to three pieces by each composer while explaining background stories related to the pieces. She introduced Bach’s music as Steve Jobs’ favorite, where the late CEO gained his creative thinking. Mozart is Kim’s favorite and she confessed that she would have fallen in love with him had they lived in the same time and place. She alleged that Mozart’s music raises the chances of doctors finding cancerous tumors by 45 percent while doing an endoscopic examination of the large intestine. Brahms was a romantic musician who loved reading and taking walks, according to the violinist. However, he suffered through a tragic love as his first and last love was the wife of his teacher Robert Schumann (1810-1856).

Kim played a total 10 pieces, including the violin version of Ennio Morriconne’s “Nella Fantasia,” for which she arranged the original pieces for the first time in the world, given permission by the composer.

The president of CICI, Choi Jung-wha, said that she was “able to learn a lot about the great composers because Kim taught in an easy, friendly style, with a great sense of humor.”

Korea CQ events brings together more than 60 diplomats in Korea, CEOs and other cultural leaders to exchange opinions and enjoy cultural events so they can better understand Korean culture and share their ideas to promote the culture.