Han Il Yong—Art Prodigy and Renowned Pianists

Han Il Yong, 12, is renowned as a star in the pianists’ world.

She is now studying at Pyongyang Music Institute No. 1 under Kim Won Gyun University of Music.

Born into a family of artistes, she surprised the people with her amazing listening ability when she was three. (She identified both a triad and a complex of seven notes.) During her nursery years she already played piano etudes without any difficulty. She detected a complex of 12-15 notes without a mistake in her kindergarten years.

In the first year of the primary school course of the institute, she won the first and technical prizes at an individual contest of primary-school pupils which was hosted by the institute.

Later she went abroad to study music.

When she entered Tchaikovsky Conservatory, she played the Korean music Footsteps and foreign music pieces before the teachers including the conservatory’s president and department head. Amazed by her talents, they gave unstinted praise to her. Six months later she participated in the 3rd International Piano Concours held in Moscow, the capital of Russia, in March 2014. She won a special cup and diploma there.

In St. Petersburg, Russia, the 9th International Instrumentalists’ Concours, an internationally-acclaimed musical contest for its correctness, objectiveness, fairness and scientific accuracy, took place in November 2014, attracting more than 120 young players from around the world. The players competed in five categories of musical instruments including piano and wind and string instruments. The categories were again divided into groups A and B.

Han Il Yong, who belonged to group A under 14 of piano category, played the compulsory pieces of high level brilliantly. She was rated as a most prominent prodigy and a brilliant player, and awarded the first cup and diploma and the special cup, the best prize of the concours.

The panel chairman of the concours was amanzed by Han’s playing technique and artistic sense and lauded the talent training policy of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the DPRK government as the best.

Han Il Yong says: It is mother who gave birth to me. However it is not her but my teachers of the nursery, the kindergarten and the institute who trained me into a good pianist. I want to dedicate my diploma, bouquet and congratulations to my teachers.