From cardboard-cutout piano to Steinway, Aviram Reichert shows persistence leads to success

Aviram Reichert, pianist and Seoul National University College of Music professor / Photo by Kang Tae-uk

SNU professor says openness to personal interpretation of music is key for students

By Hagit Gili Gluska

Aviram Reichert is an impressive piano soloist in the field of classical music. He is known for his deeply intelligent interpretations, striking technique and exquisite tone. Reichert is a professor of piano at the music school of one of the top-ranked universities in Korea, Seoul National University (SNU), and he is also well recognized as one of Steinway's piano artists.

But he did not start as a young student who could get enough financial and other kinds of support from his parents to attend an elite education with quality instructors.

He was born in Israel to a poor European Jewish immigrant's family. At six years old, he started to show an interest in the piano during a visit to a neighbor's house. Reichert approached his neighbor while he was playing and tried to repeat the music he had just heard. The neighbor, who was a piano teacher, recognized his potential and that was the point where his life as a pianist began.

His start was not easy. As his parents did not have the resources, they could not buy him a piano and so his father built him a fake piano from cardboard, and he practiced like that every day, without a sound. They also had to settle on a mediocre piano teacher.

Aviram Reichert plays the piano as a child. Courtesy of Aviram Reichert

"My first teacher didn't teach me the right way to use my body while I was playing and so I struggled with that for many years. I feel like today I have won this war. But the battle was tough," he said.

His entire form was awkward and stiff, Reichert recalled. "Today when I teach, this is the first thing I notice about my students," he said, like a parent who is trying to correct his own parents' mistakes.

"Contagious enthusiasm" would be a good description of the way Reichert's concerts can affect his listeners. His performance is full of warmth, excitement, passion and enthusiasm, but one of the most beautiful and appreciated features in his playing is the bonding he has with the other musicians on stage. Despite being a natural soloist, Reichert's respect and attention to the conductor and his fellow orchestra members is clearly noticeable.

Unsurprisingly, the pianist states without hesitation that chamber music is his favorite. "Even if you rehearse over and over again with all the other musicians, you never quite know how it will turn out in a real live concert. Every musician plays differently in practice or on stage. This makes the live concert unpredictable and exciting. You have to feel the other musicians and they have to feel you. I always come out of those kinds of concerts, where musicians work together, with a strong feeling that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts," he said.

Reichert has made a great number of accomplishments as a pianist, but there are three prizes which he considers to be life-changing.

The first one was the first prize he won at the Epinal International Piano Competition in France in 1995. "I came to this competition after many failures and disappointments as a pianist, and this recognition gave me a new hope that all that effort wasn't for nothing. I claimed a place on the international stage."

A year later, he received the first prize in Korea's first international competition that was held at Seoul Arts Center. "Looking back, this prize changed my life," he said.

He went on to win the Bronze Medal at the 1997 Van Clibrun International Piano Competition and after many years of performing all over the world and working as an academic at a university in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the U.S., he discovered that the faculty members from SNU remembered him from that historical competition in Korea. He applied for a position as a professor at the College of Music and was accepted. That was the beginning of the Korean chapter of his life.

Aviram Reichert shows his medal after winning the first prize at the Seoul International Music Competition in 1996. Photo by Kim Na-yeon

"Korea surpassed all my wildest dreams ― a strong nation, so rich with classical music, which continues to develop all the time quantitatively and qualitatively; a society that values classical music very much and invests many of its resources in it," Reichert said.

As a nation that puts education as one of its first priorities, Korea has developed an entire industry to prepare its young musicians for university entrance exams. Reichert shared his experience as a member of the SNU's entrance exam team: "The companies that help the students prepare for the entrance exam make their rehearsal rooms look like the university audition room down to the last detail, including the color of the curtains and the type of chairs. Therefore, the students are very well-trained to perform under pressure when they come to the entrance exam."

Often mistakenly calling his Korean students "my children" and then correcting himself, he described them as being full of motivation and passion for perfection, but also acknowledged the difficulties that they have when they arrive at the university.

"They work hard and come with a real passion to excel, but some of them have problems with the interpretation of the music and lack the courage to express their thoughts. … The most beautiful things happen within this range of interpretation, so when I decide whether to take a student under my guidance or not, I try to talk to him or her and look in their eyes and see whether 'their door is open' for new thoughts," he said.

While his talent, persistence and optimism have been what brought the little boy so far and are still an inspiration to anyone seeking success, the pianist talked about what he believes to be talent: "Many people talk about 'talent,' but I don't believe in talent in the ordinary meaning. The real talent is to work hard and keep going not only when you are on the top but also when you fail, when you feel bad, sick, tired and hungry ― that's the real talent."

Born in Israel, Hagit Gili Gluska is a violin maker who changed her career after years of practicing law at the office of Israel's State Attorney. She studied the art of violin making in Italy and since then has worked in both Italy and Korea. She specializes in making violins, violas and cellos.