Music
Yundi Li
YeWon Lee (Faculty of Letters, 3rd Year, Korea)
When I was in high school, I couldn’t live without music, especially the piano.
Whenever I’m going through a hard time, I would play a favorite song and it would make me concentrate and clear my head. When I was a senior in high school, I was really into Yundi Li, a Chinese pianist. When I heard that he was performing in Korea, I bought a ticket with no hesitation. I remember being surprised at myself for going to the performance by myself because I’ve never gone out on my own before. I would like to take this time to introduce a little bit about Yundi Li.
The 14th International Chopin Competition that was held in 2000 is still reminisced by many people. The reason is because he was the youngest (18 years old at the time) and the first Chinese titleholder. The whole audience was overjoyed because a winner appeared for the first time in 15 years. But the biggest reason he became the talk of crowd was because he was a down-to-earth local. He mainly performs within Asia and barely performs abroad. The International Chopin Competition is one of the 3 largest piano competitions in the world and is held every 5 years. Out of the numerous contests in the world, it is known as the most prestigious and historical competition. It’s even difficult to apply to the competition because many talented pianists
gather from around the world, including people who have their own albums and holders of sponsors. Therefore, there weren’t many people who expected Yundi Li to win and it was clearly evident because only a few of his performances was recorded in the DVD. However, his marvelous performance in the first round drew attention from the crowd. In the NHK’s documentary of the 14th International Chopin Competition, you can identify Yundi Li performing Etudes OP. 25 No.11. Yundi Li made me realize that one’s talent is the greatest weapon to draw people’s attention.
