Prize-winning pianists return to play Seoul

The Lim brothers ― Dong-hyek and Dong-min ― are pretty good at playing Chopin. So good, in fact, that they placed third in the 15th International F. Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw on Oct. 22.
Next Wednesday, Seoulites will get a taste of what the Lim brothers dished up in Poland when they play live at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts. It will be the brothers’ first concert in Seoul since returning from Europe.
The first Koreans to enter the final stage of the competition and to win a prize, the Lim brothers have been among the most celebrated musical prodigies in Korea. They captured international attention at the Chopin Competition for Young Pianists in Moscow in September 1996 by winning the first prize, by Dong-min, and the second prize, by Dong-hyek.
The more famous of the two, the younger Dong-hyek was born in 1984, four years after Dong-min, and moved to Russia at the age of 10 to become a pupil at the Moscow Central Music School. Following in his elder brother’s footsteps, Dong-hyek continued his study at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Professor Lev Naumov, and moved to Germany to study at the Hochschule fur Musik in Hanover.
Backed by the pianist Martha Argerich, Dong-hyek has been invited to perform at important musical festivals, including La Roque d’Antheron, and released his debut recording of Chopin, Schubert, and Ravel under the “Martha Argerich Presents” series in June 2002. He released a second album in 2004, the only one of the four pianists in the series who released a second album that year. Both his first and second albums won the honorable Golden Diapason award in France.
The Lim brothers have won awards in numerous major music competitions. The older brother took fifth place at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow in 2002 and at the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano, Italy in 2001.
The younger brother won the International Busoni Piano Competition in Italy in 2000 and the Premier Grand Prix at the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris in December 2001.
Another piano concert by Dong-hyek is scheduled to be held at the Seoul Arts Center on Jan. 15. He will be playing Chopin’s four “Ballades,” Schubert’s “Imprompt” and B Balakirev Islamey’s “Oriental Fantasy.”

by Limb Jae-un

The concerts start at 7:30 p.m. Ticket prices are 30,000 ($28) won to 100,000 won. For information, visit www.sejongpac.or.kr.