Yoonji Seo has been in love with the piano since she first heard her brother play. Seo immediately started taking lessons. She was four at the time and her love hasn’t faded one bit since.
Seo has amazing dedication, usually practicing four hours a day. “I finish practicing at ten and start my homework at 10 so I usually go to bed at twelve or one”. Said Seo. “That much drive in itself is an inspiration to other musicians.” Said Elbeg Erdenee, a friend of Seo’s for two years. “She has an incredible amount of dedication and music mastery”.
All that dedication payed off just recently, when she won first in a competition and had the chance to participate in an international competition, American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition 2011, for music students around the world. Seo took first place and was then given the opportunity to travel to New York City with her mom on the weekend of March 12, to play for hundreds of people in Carnegie Hall.
For this particular performance Seo played Prelude and Fugue by Bach. Along with Seo, 29 other young performers traveled from all over the world for this one special night. However, Seo was not the only LHS student in attendance that Saturday. Sophomore Mackenzie Owens, traveling to New York for her sixteenth birthday also went to Carnegie Hall, just to listen to Seo play.
“It was really cool because after she performed she was bowing and I caught her eye and she gave me this huge smile and I was going to wave but, I mean, it’s Carnegie Hall.” Owens said.
This trip to New York was the opportunity that Yoonji has been waiting for. In 2008, Seo’s piano teacher in South Korea encouraged her to move to the United States to better study piano.
“She studied in America for college so she knew all the good things,” Seo said. “She wanted me to study here because it is easier to study piano in America then in Korea.”
This was an incredible opportunity for Seo and the choice was well made.
In the future Seo wants to become a piano professor at a college, although she doesn’t know which one yet. Erdenee thinks that Seo could reach this goal and even go farther.
“I personally think think she’s already at a professional level and that she should [and could] become an internationally known pianist, although she is reluctant to admit that,” Erdenee said. Many people were shocked to hear of her piano playing at Carnegie Hall because when Seo found out, she didn’t tell many people.
“When she found out that she would be playing at Carnegie Hall she told me but she didn’t tell most people, she was so modest about it,” Erdenee said. “She is an incredibly modest person and has an incredible amount of dedication and music mastery.”
Seo has amazing dedication, usually practicing four hours a day. “I finish practicing at ten and start my homework at 10 so I usually go to bed at twelve or one”. Said Seo. “That much drive in itself is an inspiration to other musicians.” Said Elbeg Erdenee, a friend of Seo’s for two years. “She has an incredible amount of dedication and music mastery”.
All that dedication payed off just recently, when she won first in a competition and had the chance to participate in an international competition, American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition 2011, for music students around the world. Seo took first place and was then given the opportunity to travel to New York City with her mom on the weekend of March 12, to play for hundreds of people in Carnegie Hall.
For this particular performance Seo played Prelude and Fugue by Bach. Along with Seo, 29 other young performers traveled from all over the world for this one special night. However, Seo was not the only LHS student in attendance that Saturday. Sophomore Mackenzie Owens, traveling to New York for her sixteenth birthday also went to Carnegie Hall, just to listen to Seo play.
“It was really cool because after she performed she was bowing and I caught her eye and she gave me this huge smile and I was going to wave but, I mean, it’s Carnegie Hall.” Owens said.
This trip to New York was the opportunity that Yoonji has been waiting for. In 2008, Seo’s piano teacher in South Korea encouraged her to move to the United States to better study piano.
“She studied in America for college so she knew all the good things,” Seo said. “She wanted me to study here because it is easier to study piano in America then in Korea.”
This was an incredible opportunity for Seo and the choice was well made.
In the future Seo wants to become a piano professor at a college, although she doesn’t know which one yet. Erdenee thinks that Seo could reach this goal and even go farther.
“I personally think think she’s already at a professional level and that she should [and could] become an internationally known pianist, although she is reluctant to admit that,” Erdenee said. Many people were shocked to hear of her piano playing at Carnegie Hall because when Seo found out, she didn’t tell many people.
“When she found out that she would be playing at Carnegie Hall she told me but she didn’t tell most people, she was so modest about it,” Erdenee said. “She is an incredibly modest person and has an incredible amount of dedication and music mastery.”
