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Published April 23rd, 2014
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A Decision Driven by Passion: Orinda Musician Hye Yeong Min
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| By Mei Sun Li |
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| Photo provided |
Into her late 30s and well established as a cancer research scientist, Orinda resident Hye Yeong Min (pronounced "Hey Young") in 1997 courageously and decisively took a detour in her career. She abandoned science for music and eventually received a Masters of Chamber Music degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Min says of her conservatory training, "It was the hardest, most intense period of my life, and it was great."
Harvard and Stanford educated molecular biologist turned classical pianist, Min teaches piano, is a solo performer, both locally and at music festivals around the country, and also is a chamber musician. "Making music with others, when it goes well, is really exhilarating," she says.
Although her repertoire includes the great compositions of Chopin, Mozart, Brahms, Schubert and Schumann, Min feels particularly close to Beethoven's Sonata Opus 110, one of his last piano works. "It is a very spiritual piece that touches me deeply when I play it," she says. The decision she wrestled with 17 years ago was clearly the right one.
Dwight Stone, composer and President of the Contra Costa Performing Arts Society, says, "Hye Yeong Min is a superb pianist whose musicality comes to life in every piece she chooses to play. Her background in science as well as art translates into clarity of interpretation and execution." Min is an active member of CCPAS and a past president.
In Seoul, Korea, when Min was only 6, it was the captivating keyboard tunes from a neighbor's piano that drew her to music. Soon she was taking lessons from that neighbor and putting in practice time there as well since her family did not own a piano.
When Min was 9, the family, including three sisters, immigrated to America, settling in Monterey, California. Along with the move, a piano purchased for $100 and a remarkable piano teacher became a significant part of her new life.
While in grade school, she was already tinkering with chemistry sets and fascinated by the biological sciences. A high school junior year summer internship with a neuroscientist at NASA's Ames Research Center sealed the deal. "On the first day, I saw a bucket containing a human brain and watched a technician carefully cutting up brain slices," she says. Following undergraduate study in biology at Stanford, Min earned a doctorate at Harvard. Music remained a passion but necessarily took a back seat.
Soon she was deeply involved in cancer research. "I did like being a scientist," she says. "It was intellectually stimulating and we were close to a breakthrough in being able to cut off the blood supply to malignant tumors which then was a very new idea. But I never experienced the passion that I had for music."
Years later in 1997, heeding a growing, gnawing, and pent up feeling that music needed to be more central to her life, Min finally gave up the struggle and turned in her company badge. She re-focused on her piano practice and also allowed herself the luxury of devoting more time to her two young daughters.
When Laura and Anna headed off to college, she applied to the music conservatory program and dove into the grueling 16 hour days of piano practice, chamber group rehearsals, lessons and classes. However, with the support of her husband Tom McDonald, an attorney, who enthusiastically took over household duties, Min received her master's degree in 2009.
Min and violist Wendy Clymer will be performing Brahms Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major Opus 100 (transcribed for viola) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 13 at Grace Presbyterian Church, 2100 Tice Valley Blvd. in Walnut Creek. This is a free Contra Costa Performing Arts Society event.
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Contra Costa Performing Arts Society Founder's Concert April 27
The Contra Costa Performing Arts Society is a local non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the performing arts among its members and in the community through free public concerts and workshops. Founded by Rosamond M. Davis in 1974, CCPAS will be celebrating its 40th anniversary with a Founder's Concert at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 27 at Grace Presbyterian Church, 2100 Tice Valley Blvd in Walnut Creek. For more information about this event and about other upcoming music performances including the annual high school vocal competition, go to www.ccpas.org.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA