Generally speaking, competitions announce their prizewinners in one of two ways.
The first is when they carefully compile evaluations and scores over several days, then post the results on the website a few days later.
The second is when the judges hold a brief meeting on the day of the competition and announce the results then and there.
The “Chosun Music Concours” that Dohee had entered was the latter.
Thanks to that, once every contestant’s performance was over.
With one hour left until the prizewinners were announced.
The three judges had to quickly decide the high school division winners.
The Grand Prize, Gold Prize, Silver Prize, and Bronze Prize—four in all.
But deciding the winners was not exactly smooth sailing.
Because the pianist Jeong Hanbin kept delaying things.
“This kid was good, wasn’t he? He played extremely well.”
The professor held out his own evaluation sheet.
A male student whose score was recorded at nearly full marks.
He was a student at Seoul Arts High School, considered the best among Korea’s arts high schools.
“Yes, he was a student with outstanding technical skill.”
The director of a large piano academy nodded.
Then he looked at Jeong Hanbin, asking for his agreement.
“What do you think, Hanbin?”
But Jeong Hanbin’s expression remained sulky.
“Well… he did play well.”
‘There he goes again…’
‘We don’t have time…’
As expected, Jeong Hanbin pretended to agree, then played the recorded video of that contestant’s performance.
“If you look at the first do-fa-mi-si-re here, it was nearly perfect. Not too much, not too little. His technical maturity is clear. But the second do-fa-mi-si-re part. This should have been soft. But it’s too stiff. It became stiff because he was trying to preserve the musicality. This needs to give the feeling of tararararan, ttan-ttan, then ttan-ttan-ttan ta…”
“All right, all right.”
The professor cut him off.
He could tell what he meant without listening to the end.
And everything he was saying was absolutely correct.
“I agree, and I understand that your standards are high, Hanbin. But even among majors, ninety percent of them play that part stiffly to begin with.”
The problem was that these were parts that were difficult to demand from high school students in the first place.
That was something everyone knew.
“I think so as well. If they try to play it as softly as the masters, the musicality disappears, and if they try to preserve the musicality, it becomes stiff. It’s a dilemma, a dilemma.”
“Yes, I don’t think there’s any need to bring that up as a criterion for judging the high school division.”
But Jeong Hanbin shook his head.
“No, we do need to bring it up.”
Then he played another video as it was.
It was Dohee’s performance.
“This girl’s performance was different. At a glance, it seems like a stiff, precise, meticulous performance, but this expression, this hand shape, this facial expression, this body movement. From the fundamentals of her technique, it’s full of soft musicality, isn’t it!”
“All right, I get it.”
At the sight of Jeong Hanbin making all sorts of colorful expressions and waving his hands around, the professor let out a deep sigh.
Just how far had he fallen? That perverted-looking behavior kept repeating itself over and over.
Honestly, there was no choice but to give first place to Lee Dohee.
The precise techniques and expressions she had shown earlier were outstanding enough to make even him marvel.
It was just that Lee Dohee’s variation in the latter half, which had been far too willful, was simply too impudent.
It was outrageous.
To do that to Chopin’s piece.
Especially the final keystroke, crushing the note like that.
But even so, he could understand Jeong Hanbin’s excitement.
Because even in that final interpretation in the video that kept playing, Chopin’s theme could be felt clearly.
‘The theme was expressed accurately, but… I don’t like the interpretation… honestly.’
As a judge, he had to judge more coolly than anyone.
But without realizing it, he seemed to have become absorbed in the performance and given an emotional evaluation.
“Ah, I get it already. Now sit down, sit.”
* * *
The news that Dohee had won the Grand Prize spread quickly, not only through articles but also across online communities.
[A concours winner so pretty people thought she was an idol]
─(article photo)
She actually is an idol
The last time she entered a concours was when she was 14
Then she promoted as an idol, wrapped up activities with SEVEN
Entered a concours again and won again at 17
-Why is she actually an idol?
-Dohee, play me…
└???: Ah shit, this is tuned wrong
-This is seriously a balance breaker… she’s insanely pretty, has a killer body, studies well enough to rank first in school every time, her job is idol, and now she wins piano concours too…
-Idol lolololol With that good a brain, what she chooses to do is be an idol lolololol
└? What’s wrong with being an idol lol
└It’s dumb as hell lol
└Don’t feed the troll, this bastard’s a baiting boomer in his 50s
└[This comment has been deleted by the administrator]
└Going straight for parent insults lol Shows your level. Hey, old man, Dohee will earn in a year what you’ll make in your whole life lol You think idols these days are like idols from the old days? lol
└But honestly, with that face, wouldn’t it be stranger for her to play piano?
-Life must be fun
-What do I do if my honey quits being an idol and becomes a pianist…?
└She’s not your honey. She’s my babe
-If I woke up to the sound of piano in the morning and Dohee was sitting side by side in front of the piano with a child who looked like me, playing Chopsticks, I’d sneak up behind her, back-hug her, kiss the shy Dohee on the cheek, and whisper that I love her
└Fuck off and die
-Wow, Dohee’s going to get exempted from the military
└Nah, you need to place in an international competition to get a military exemption. This concours doesn’t apply
└Oh really? I thought she’d obviously be exempt
└Yeah. But the problem is there are lots of domestic no-name concours that are international in name only, with mostly Korean contestants, and tons of people get special military service exemptions through those. Basically loopholes. That needs to be fixed
└Wow, for real? Military service law really does have a lot of problems. Anyway, Dohee will have to work hard if she wants an exemption too
└Dohee’s a woman, so she’s exempt already, you lunatics
-So what Czerny number can Lee Dohee play up to? Is she better than me?
[Why arts and athletics are 99 percent talent]
─(photo of a pianist performing)
─(performance video)
.
.
.
Conclusion - You need talent to enter a concours
And if you’re a crazy talent monster, you can devour the concours and turn it into your own solo recital.
FYI) That kid is 18 this year and is the youngest winner in the history of the Cliburn Competition
-Korea’s environment is seriously barren, so it’s amazing that world-class people come out once in a while
-I don’t know anything, so even when I watch it, I can’t tell what’s good about it
└If it sounds good even to ordinary ears, then it’s good
-Arts and athletics really are more and more about talent the deeper you dig
-As someone working in arts and athletics, I always say this: the top 1% is talent, but the 99% below them who make up the industry ecosystem are in the realm of effort. That kid is just in the 0.01 percent among them
-Youngest winner in 60 years? That’s Messi
-If anything, the truly insane talent monsters sometimes don’t even enter concours, like Yevgeny Kissin
-So is that kid better than Dohee?
└Well, probably
[A qualification every female idol these days absolutely has to get]
─(photo of a large truck)
That would be a Class 1 Large Vehicle License
-If you don’t have this, you’re not a female idol, fr
-The lyric about an eight-ton truck with a broken steering wheel was written from firsthand experience ㄷㄷ
└Fr, it was a miracle she survived a five-car pileup
-What female idol has this lolololol
└These days all female idols get Class 1 Large licenses
-I was a female idol all along
This topic did not become a hot issue only on online communities where rough ways of speaking flew back and forth.
Dohee was a member of SEVEN, who had won last year’s Grand Music Award, and even as an individual, she was one of the celebrities with the highest amount of traffic in Korea.
Naturally, it was an attractive topic for creators who ran classical music YouTube channels as well.
Because it was an opportunity to promote their channels to the general public, who had no interest in classical music, and draw in subscribers.
Among them were also professional pianists currently active in the field.
[SEVEN’s Lee Dohee, Why She Was Able to Win the Concours Grand Prize│Ultra-Detailed Performance Analysis]
-70K views · 5 hours ago
-Ha Hyeonjun’s Classical Note