'A good pianist should be subjective'

Pianist Kim Jae-young performs at Carnegie Hall in this January 2012 file photo. / Korea Times

Pianist Kim Jae-young

By Park Jin-hai

Kim Jae-young, 21, won this year’s prestigious Yamaha Young Performing Artists (YYPA) Competition for Piano, with eight other young musicians also victorious in different musical fields.

The only Korean among the winners will leave for the YYPA Celebration Weekend to be held at Ball State University in Indiana from June 20 to 23. This will include rehearsals, master classes and workshops focusing on having a career in music.

Kim, a Juilliard undergraduate student, under the tutelage of Jerome Lowenthal, says he started playing the piano when his mother noticed he had perfect pitch at the age of five. “Since then, my life has been deeply involved with the piano. All those good and bad years, the piano has been always by my side,” said Kim, during an e-mail interview with The Korea Times.

He studied at the Korea National University of Arts in Seoul before moving to the United States in 2011. Kim also took lessons at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.

Kim said that a good pianist should be subjective.

“Rather than objective things like skills, a good pianist should be subjective and have an eye to see things through their own lens,” he added. “Right and wrong doesn’t exist in the musical world.”

As for the popularity of classical music which seems to be on the wane in Korea, Kim said that music shouldn’t be measured by audience numbers.

“I think we should view it from the perspective of how much each individual fan loves that specific genre of music. In that sense, classical music is no less popular than pop music.”

Apart from YYPA competition, Kim has won numerous prizes in Korea and the United States.

These include first prize at the Teenager Piano Competition, fifth place and becoming the youngest laureate at the 14th Oberlin (now Cooper) International Piano Competition, and also winning the MTNA New York State Piano Competition.

Now he wants to be a pianist that people associate with the music he plays.

“When people think of Wilhelm Kempff, they are automatically reminded of Beethoven; and Glenn Gould for Bach. Likewise, I wish to be a pianist whose name comes alongside a certain composer or music period,” he said.

The musical prodigy added that his short-term goal is to have a series of concert tours and teach students across the world.