Pianist Lee So-yeon, who broke Juilliard's 117-year barrier, says she is 'Korean to the bone'

Pianist Lee So-yeon, sister of singer and attorney Lee So-eun [Provided by Lisa Marie Mazzucco]

Her day begins with a long-haul commute by plane. After seeing her family off, she pushes open the doors of the Juilliard School — to awaken the musical souls of young talents from around the world, and then to sit alone at the keyboard in solitary practice.

She is the first Asian woman ever appointed to the piano faculty at Juilliard. Since the school's founding in 1905, its piano department had for 117 years been dominated by Western male masters — Emanuel Ax, Sergei Babayan, Stephen Hough and Jerome Lowenthal among them — a world largely closed to women. When Lee So-yeon shattered that glass ceiling in 2022, her name came to carry a historic distinction. Yet she had rarely appeared on Korean stages.

In a recent written interview, Lee reflected on that absence. "I had come to think performing in Korea simply wasn't meant to be for me," she said. "Korea holds deeper roots for me than anywhere else in the world, and yet the connection never quite materialized."

Now she is finally coming. Lee will give a recital on Sept. 2 at Seoul Arts Center as part of the Hic et Nunc! Music Festival, now in its ninth year, meeting Korean audiences for the first time.

"I carry the Korean spirit deeply within me — loving spicy food, crying at every goodbye, always wanting to give, always thirsting for that sense of jeong," she said, using the Korean word for emotional attachment. "This will be a comfortable and grateful stage where I can ease the lingering regret of a connection long delayed."

Beyond the 'first': a teaching philosophy built on finding one's true self

One of the most defining entries on Lee's resume is Juilliard. The storied conservatory, whose piano faculty had long been the preserve of celebrated male pianists from the West, appointed her as its first Asian woman pianist in 117 years.

Lee So-yeon, the first Asian woman on the piano faculty at the Juilliard School [Provided by Lee]

Looking back on the past four years, Lee described the experience as "mentally and physically challenging." "The commute, teaching students, performing, and being present for my family all demand total focus — and yet every one of those things brings me immeasurable joy," she said.

The most important thing she tries to give her students is not how to play well, but how to find their own music. "I try to open up a perspective that lets students approach music with a freshly awakened mind, as if encountering it for the first time," she said. "I want them to attempt new approaches rather than simple repetition." The lessons she offers as a teacher, she added, are also lessons she speaks to herself.

"The performer I want to hear in concert is not someone who plays exactly like me, but someone who interprets and communicates with sincerity — grounded in their own imagination, artistry and, above all, firm conviction. I try to help each student unfold their music persuasively and arrive at their truest self."

At Juilliard, she said, the faculty teaches and nurtures "not only outstanding artists but young people who will shape the next generation as fine human beings." The times have changed. Smartphones and YouTube now put virtually all musical knowledge and the performances of great masters within easy reach. In that environment, she places even greater emphasis on rigorous, relentless self-discipline.

"Unlike in the past, recordings and scores are easy to find today, and there are endless channels through which to learn — but that vast flood of information also brings distractions," Lee said. "In terms of performance style, Western players tend to show autonomous individuality while Eastern players tend to demonstrate refined technique and deep emotion. To achieve truly original artistry, strict self-discipline and deliberate practice are essential."

'Sister So-eun is my life companion' — daily life and art as one

For Lee, daily life and art are inseparable. "In the process of wholeheartedly and sincerely doing whatever you want to do, you come to recognize your own shortcomings and grow from them," she said. The teachings of her mentor, the master pianist Jerome Lowenthal, have become the firm roots that sustain her musical philosophy.

Pianist Lee So-yeon [Provided by Lisa Marie Mazzucco]

"My teacher used to say that a career is only defined near the end of one's life, and that it is the sum of everything you have experienced. Living all aspects of life with sincerity — not just musical technique, but literature, family, experiences in nature — ultimately creates depth as a performer. In that process, practice is a kind of alchemy that leads you, in the end, to the values you seek in life."

The greatest refuge within that "sum of a life" is family. Her younger sister is Lee So-eun — the teenage singer who debuted in the late 1990s and scored hits with "Seobangnim" and "Jakbyeol," and who now works as an international attorney in the United States. The two sisters chose entirely different fields, yet they share an artistic sensibility and set of values. Lee So-yeon described her sister as "someone I can talk to like a colleague or a friend, and who cheers me on unconditionally when I need steadiness on stage."

"Our lives look different, but we share an artistic sensibility and the same values. We learn from each other beyond our respective professional domains, and sometimes, like any sisters, we collide like cold and warm air masses and pour down a storm. We are companions who shape each other's lives."

The upcoming recital traces Lee's life and artistic world in an organic panorama. It opens with Debussy's painterly melodic language, then moves through Schumann and Prokofiev before arriving at Ravel. The highlight of the program is an Asian premiere: "Song of the Mother Moon," a new work by Paola Prestini, a fellow Juilliard alumna and close friend. Lee has commissioned and given world premieres of works by composers of her generation — among them Frederic Rzewski, Paola Prestini, Marc-André Hamelin, Alexander Goehr, Gabriela Lena Frank and Kim Taek-soo — and this piece holds special meaning. It was born from conversations between Prestini and Lee about their shared experience of living as both mothers and artists.

"The piece opens and closes with a brilliant cascade of notes, like a waterfall. The body of the work moves in constant alternation between a peaceful, still lullaby melody and passionate, turbulent motifs — capturing the sharp, breathless shifts of daily life between the warm moments of being fully present with a child and the fierce inner conflicts of life as an artist."

A salon concert before the recital reflects her humanistic breadth. Taking Marcel Proust's novel "In Search of Lost Time" as its theme, it evokes the atmosphere of late-19th-century French Belle Époque, with melodies by Reynaldo Hahn, Fauré and Debussy meeting literature.

'Young Korean musicians: prioritize artistic connection over mechanical technique'

Balancing the three pillars of stage, school and home without pause, the guiding principle she has set as her compass is an intensity that never settles.

Compared with when Lee left for the United States to study more than two decades ago, the standing of Korean musicians in the global classical world is nothing short of dazzling. They sweep major competitions and have established themselves as star musicians not just in Korea but worldwide. Lee herself proved her mettle by winning the Naumburg International Piano Competition and the Concert Artists Guild International Competition. "I am truly proud of the remarkable talent and artistry of the younger Korean musicians," she said. Yet she also returns to the essence of art through words spoken by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns at a Brandeis University commencement ceremony.

"Don't succumb to excessive specialization — hone all of your capacities broadly. That will make us healthier. Remember every day that success does not necessarily mean excellence."

She urges young musicians not to make "success" itself the ultimate goal. "On a rewarding but difficult and unpredictable journey, we can only strive first for excellence through effort and hope that it leads to success along the way," Lee said. "They must prioritize genuine artistic connection over formulaic mechanical technique, and work to bring out the musicality that is uniquely their own."

Her own challenges continue. A two-piano project with her husband, pianist Ran Dank, and performances on leading stages around the world still await. After the Seoul recital, she and Dank will give the world premiere of "Toward the Future," a concerto for two pianos jointly commissioned from composer Chen Yi. She also plans to continue performing Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra in a two-piano version, and has a performance of Zemlinsky's arrangement of Mahler's Symphony No. 6 scheduled at the Library of Congress in Washington.

"I want to keep growing — performing and teaching with sincerity, with the conviction that today will be better than yesterday," she said.

shee@heraldcorp.com