Han Keum sat at a upright piano in black and meticulously placed his hands upon the piano keys. Han Keum, an Anchorage eighth grader was dressed in all black attire as he would perform in the concert. Inside the class at Northern Lights ABC School, the student began playing Frederic Chopin’s Nocturne number nine.
Han as well as his entire family emigrated in Alaska in 2014 from South Korea in 2014. The father of Han, Won serves as the head of an evangelical church in which Han plays the piano with his mother. Additionally, his older brother plays the drums. Through the guidance of his mother and guidance from the father of his, Han Keum has become one of the most gifted younger musicians from Anchorage.
He almost gave up on music when he realized his love for the violin in the orchestra class at school.
“My mom was the person who taught me to play the piano,” Keum said. “Sometimes when I’m playing the violin and my mom plays piano, and she’s with me whenever playing the violin. I’m thinking that’s all in all, amusement.”
In the sixth grade Han was keen to join the orchestra, but it meant that he needed to pick an instrument that was new -one that had strings. A church member gifted him with a violin and he started learning to play it, mostly on his own.
Northern Lights ABC School Orchestra teacher Katie Eakes saw Han’s talent at an early stage, but was unable to see him perform live because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Without an orchestra to practice together, Han bowed the strings of the violin to Eakes via the phone on a Zoom phone call.
“He’s changed from being an inexperienced athlete to being at the very top of the line for his age and time frame, but to his peers, he’s sort of shooting for the top,” Eakes said.
Han told me he was close to giving up in music. In the fifth grade, he aimed to learn his father’s favourite tune for the piano Chopin’s Revolutionary etude. However, he could not master the complex work of art. He stopped playing piano briefly. It was to be stressful. But the teacher, Katie Eakes, helped him understand why he played at all in the first place.
“Mrs. Eakes was the one who showed me how much fun it was to simply get involved with music all the time,” he said. “So all in all I’m very grateful to Mrs. Eakes has taught me how to enjoy music. I’m sure this is what drew me returning to playing the piano, too.”
in 2022 Han was a participant in the Anchorage Chamber Music Festival summer intensive, which was an eight-day affair for musicians in middle school until their mid-20s. Han had only intended to play the violin however, he wowed his fellow musicians and judges at the competition by signing up as a pianist for the student competition.
Zachary Spontak plays in the orchestra located in Lisbon, Portugal, and is the Education Director of the Anchorage Chamber Music Festival. He was a judge for the contest that Han took part in last summer.
Retribution for Chopin, Spontak reacted to Chopin piece that had failed to impress the composer, Spontak claimed Han had nailed an etude called the Revolutionary Etude during the competition.
“He is out and plays an amazing, virtuosic and very challenging piece of music, and we couldn’t have seen the potential,” Spontak said. “It was quite amazing, because we weren’t sure what to expect, but we were amazed, which is why it was amazing.”
He took home.
Spontak stated that, not only Han was Han the youngest musician to be entered in the competition but he also was the only musician that played two instruments in the summer intensive.
“He does his best to do the effort, as you can imagine and I respect his dedication, which is why he can get the job done, and of course there is the wonderful support from his mother and in fact, both of the parents of his,” Spontak told the AP. “He is very motivated and is a great motivator, so I think he’s definitely on the right track.”
Han will play his last concert in his Northern Lights ABC School orchestra on May 10 and has already had an audition for the advanced orchestras in Service High School, which will be his next school in the autumn.
“My goals in music are be good enough to make people smile or feel emotion as they listen to me play,” Keum said.
Han said he wants to give his music to others and one day teach youngsters musicians in the same way as her mother, and Eakes taught him.
