Sonja Park
Doha: In a space of abyssal stillness, a melodic flow and harmonic structure rushed in, there was a stream of rhythmical pattern, the ebb and flow of tempo, the density of the palaces of sound – music transmits, it was about life, conversations, everything.
She grasped the musical architecture, differentiation of moods was felt, she proved to be “A Pianist who moves people”.
That’s how I remembered Sonja Park performing a year ago.
The Peninsula talked to the first Steinway artist in the Middle East after her four-day concert in Saudi Arabia where she played at AlUla, an ancient Arabic oasis city in the Medina province of northwestern part of the Kingdom for the “Winter at Tantora” festival.
“I’m a pianist who moves people, not physically (laughs) I’m not pushing people, but I’m moving with my musicality, with my performances. I try to touch people’s hearts. People say that when they watch me perform, they become emotional – and I think through my music, a lot of people get healed, or when they are sad, it get enhanced, they feel happier, they feel relaxed,” she said.
“I just try to put all my heart to make my musicality a current, so it gets to them, it’s like transferring my entire inner-self for the moment. I try to translate my innermost self to a language that has no words.”
While it may be hard to write in words how she ‘touches people’s hearts’, Sonja call it a “small miracle.”
“What happens is, it’s like a chemical transition. I play, I feel, I perform, I experience something extremely strong, emotionally – and my emotion get to them, something happens in the air, I can’t explain, it’s just the emotions get delivered to the audience.”
The disciplined artiste is right there, playing, at the moment in her classical-music world. On spotlight, she was surrounded by people.
Sonja said what she would like the public to think about her is she is a messenger, an interpreter. “I was the messenger, or ambassador behind trying to spread and share the joy of music, share the happiness, share the happy virus.”
She started playing the piano at the age of six, under her mother’s tutelage. “My mother is an amazing singer; she plays the piano and the cello. I learned music through church and she initially taught me first and I was sent to her friend for a while.”
The artiste is an essentially a self-taught pianist. In her early age, she toured the world, continued her studies in Vienna as a concert artiste, won numerous accolades and scholarships including the Gonda Weiner award for young talents, Karajan Foundation, Gesellschaft für Musikfreunde, Ministry for Transport and Science, Sobotka-Janicek Foundation. Twenty three years ago, Sonja was honoured by the University of Vienna as among the greatest talents. Also, she is a prizewinner of international piano competitions such as Brahms International competition, Karajan Society scholarship, Premio Rodolf Caporalli, and Premio Vittorio Gui.
A stroke of fate
Among all of these achievements, being a pianist didn’t emerge as a dream, rather, she wanted to be a journalist. But there was a stroke of fate – an intimate piano concert she attended where her then professor performed.
“I went to visit my friend in Vienna, and I went to my professor’s piano concert recitals and totally fell in love with music, really fell in love with music. From there, I packed my bag and went to Vienna, did the exam, and entered the music school, the university, and then ever since I didn’t regret it at all.
“He moved me so deeply that I was convinced that this is my path, so luckily even though I was not trained as a pianist at that time, luckily I was born with this talent for music so I can catch up quickly.”
That phase was a playful variation. Sonja undoubtedly has a natural talent, the perfect ingredients to be a pianist.
Sonja, a South Korean national came to Qatar along with the other musicians of Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO) way back in September 2008. Throughout the years, she proved to be no fluke of the studio. In October 2013, she together with her husband, Joris Laenen, the principal trumpet player with QPO, created Moving Young Artists Foundation or MYA. The name was based on their first-born daughter Mia, but with a ‘y’.
The non-profit organisation was founded to give local and international talents a platform and opportunity to perform. They have been organising free concerts where they first started at Paper Moon and later moved to Marsa Malaz Kempinski where they performed for five seasons, and are about to start anew this month.
“Because of the concert series we started at Kempinski, their headquarters at Geneva made it a global programme; they call it ‘Kempinski Concertini’. They transform the hotel’s lobby into a stage for young artistes – it’s because of us [referring to MYA], we initially did it,” Sonja proudly said.
She really moves people.
The young artist wanted more of the musical appetite, she revealed that she’s planning to study jazz, and is among her New Year’s resolutions.
“I would love to go back to playing to jazz, to learn jazz very well as I used to do a lot of improvisations during my high school years.”
Between the tempo passages, Sonja making and doing music seem effortless; she was bold, discarded fears, letting herself to be who she really is. She has a mesmerising power which essentially unleashes emotions. That was her talent, the pianist’s trait.
When I asked what music is for her, she fell silent for a moment.
“For me, music is life; it’s a breathing air, and love. The love and passion naturally comes out when I play, music is a necessity – it is air, life and love. Music is my identity.”
