'For me, performing is like breathing': pianist Paik Hae-sun

Korea Herald

11 hours ago

Renowned pianist and educator to perform with the Belgian National Orchestra in its Korean debut
Pianist Paik Hae-sun, who has balanced her dual career as a soloist and educator, will reunite with the Belgian National Orchestra at its Korean debut next month.
She last performed with the orchestra when she won fourth place at the 1991 Queen Elisabeth Competition, which is still the highest result for a South Korean pianist, matched only by Han Ji-ho in 2016.
Since then, Paik, 60, has carved out a distinguished career: she became a laureate of nearly every major international competition she entered, the first Korean pianist to sign with EMI Classics, and at just 29, a member of the faculty at Seoul National University.
Paik, now co-chair of the piano department at the New England Conservatory, is regarded as one of the most esteemed pianist-educators of her generation. Her students have risen quickly on the international stage — most recently Kim Sae-hyun, who won first grand prize at the 2025 Long-Thibaud International Competition in Paris.
Paik described today's young Korean pianists as 'idols of the classical world.'
'Young pianists seem to be their own role models,' Paik said during a press conference held at Jongno Art Hall in central Seoul on Monday, adding that "Each takes a different path, a considerable number are growing rapidly."
'A teacher can't give students 100 percent. They have to find their own way. Perhaps because there is so much information now, this generation grows quickly. They know how to cook with their own recipes, so the flavor of the music is always different. Each of them discovers something of their own,' she said.
The Belgian National Orchestra will tour Korea Sept. 24-30, presenting six concerts across the country under music director Antony Hermu. The tour opens at the Seoul Arts Center and continues through Andong in North Gyeongsang Province, Suwon in Gyeonggi Province, Gongju in South Chungcheong Province, Daegu, and Goyang in Gyeonggi Province. Programs will pair Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito" overture and Brahms' Symphony No. 1 with Beethoven's 'Emperor' Concerto, featuring Paik as soloist.
Explaining that she will be performing the "Emperor" Concerto for the first time in seven or eight years, she reflected on why the concerto still matters.
"The 'Emperor' is the only one of Beethoven's concertos he never performed. It was composed as Napoleon's army marched into Vienna, with cannon fire echoing through the city," she said. "The origin of its title remains uncertain, yet the music itself leaves no ambiguity: It begins with sweeping grandeur, moves into a second movement of rare, haunting beauty and concludes with a finale that dances with irresistible vitality."
In performing this piece, she approaches it with her usual mindset.
'As a performer, whenever I find myself thinking, 'Oh, I already know this piece,' the performance never goes very well. I always worry: Will it be all right this time? What if I fail again? And it's when I give everything I have, with that constant concern, that results I never expected somehow emerge. At least in my case, that has always been true," she noted.
'For me, performing is like breathing. Only when I am at the piano do I return to my truest self.'