Gifted pianists give joy to the infirm

HARRIS, NY – To hear them play is to be transported into rapture, to forget one’s trials and to marvel at their gift. So it was with rapt silence and attention that the patients at the Skilled Nursing Unit (SNU) at Catskill Regional Medical Center listened to six young pianists perform on August 20 as part of the Outreach Program of the 2005 Shandelee Music Festival.

Through the conjoined efforts of the Shandelee Music Festival’s Director of Public Relations Barbara Konvalin and CRMC’s Director of Community Services Jodi Goodman, a group of young artists from the Shandelee Music Festival performed for patients at the hospital, affording people whose lives are limited by confinement an opportunity to be carried away to the realm of the celestial. It was the fourth straight year that such a concert took place at the hospital. As the strains of Haydn, Dutilleux, Debussy, Schumann, Brahms, Lizst, Bach and Saint-Saëns soared and echoed through the room, several patients who sat with eyes closed and fingers playing imaginary keyboards on their knees seemed to have escaped the bounds of their infirmity. Young pianists Kimberly Kong, Yoo Ran Park, Joo Young Moon, Christine Kim, Young Ah-Tak and Quentin Kim took turns at the keyboard performing for the patients excerpts from their upcoming concerts of August 13 and 20.

All the students who have spent the past two weeks studying at the Shandelee Music Festival with teacher Yong Hi Moon are remarkably gifted. Ensconced in individual cabins in the woods, each equipped with a Steinway piano, the few students selected from the ranks of talented pianists who applied had a remarkable opportunity to refine their gift with hours of practice and master classes amid the beautiful placidity of the festival site founded and directed by pianist/teacher Daniel Stroup.

The students were accompanied to the hospital by Konvalin and distinguished perfomer and teacher Lana Ivanov who, in addition to her tutorial role at the festival, serves as one of the board’s founding members. Ivanov, an inaugural first prize winner of the Summit Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, was born in Russia but has lived, studied and performed in this country for more than 30 years. She is just one of the incredible resources available to these gifted musicians, who are all currently engaged in serious music study. Christine Kim, Kong, Park and Yoo-Ran Moon all study at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. Kong is just entering after graduating from North Allegheny Senior High School in Pennsylvania. Young Ah-Tak studies at the New England Conservatory of Music and Quentin Kim, a recent graduate of Yale, has been accepted into the doctoral program at Julliard.

After the concert, this reporter had a unique opportunity to enjoy some ice cream and conversation with the performers. All began their study at age five, but as Christine Kim pointed out, “We have a lot more in our lives than just music. I love to swim, run and hang out with my friends.” Asked about the rigors of their practice, Ivanov noted that they were assigned four hours of practice a day in addition to their lessons and classes, but most opted to play much more. Quentin Kim said that such extensive practice was something they had built themselves up to over the years. In response to questions about individual likes, pastimes and styles, Kong noted, “While all fine musicians are technically very adept, each one’s personality comes through in his or her performance.” That was easily observable at the hospital, where what emanated from the piano varied greatly not only in terms of the music itself, but in its delivery.

Virtuosos to be sure, but giving, warm and wonderful people as well, this week’s youth in focus brought peace and harmony to the lives of local patients on their way to sharing their gifts with audiences around the world.