Young virtuoso to play Thursday in Opelika

Audience members will be in for a treat when Ji-Yong Kim takes the stage Thursday as part of the Arts Association of East Alabama’s Performance Series.

Not only has the high school-aged piano prodigy selected a special program for the Opelika show, but Alabama Public Television will film a documentary chronicling his transition from child prodigy to adult professional.

“I started playing the piano as a young 5-year-old when I was still in Korea,” Ji-Yong said. “From what my mother tells me, I had come back from church one day with my family and started playing the hymns by ear.

“My mother had thought that it would be my father or even my older sister but when she saw her little 5-year-old son playing the piano with beautiful instincts and by ear, she decided that this was a gift and a talent that God had given me, so she started off teaching me first and got me to where I am today.”

A lot has happened since Ji-Yong first sat down and picked out those notes by ear. He has since performed on “From the Top: Live at Carnegie Hall” in a nationally televised performance on PBS. At age 10, he was the youngest pianist to win the New York Philharmonic Young Artist Competition.

He now attends Julliard.

His performance Thursday will feature in the Alabama Public Television documentary, which is to air sometime in the spring.

“This will be my first concert where I will have to speak directly to the audience about every piece that I will be performing,” Ji-Yong said. “I decided to keep it very traditional by starting with Mozart and ending the program with the Liszt B-minor sonata. Hopefully, the audience will enjoy and appreciate it.”

Filming will begin before the show on Thursday and continue after it into Friday.

“I have done filming here and there with PBS and the public television channels in Korea during my tour, but not necessarily a whole documentary on myself,” Ji-Yong said. “I’m excited to share what my thoughts are on the works that I’ll be performing and as well as my performance.”

Phillip Preston, executive director of the Arts Association of East Alabama, said the performance will be something that is easily assessable to audience members because of the intimate performance setting and the familiarity of the
music.

“It’s very much having this really amazing, talented guy in the community living room,” Preston said.

Bruce Kuerten, director of the Media Production Group at Auburn University, will be filming for APT. He said filming Ji-Yong gives Auburn’s Media Production Group and APT the ability to support the arts and further education the community.

“We’re in the fortunate position to have Ji-Yong for a few days on each side of Thursday evening’s concert, and we’ll use that time to interview him about what he’s playing,” Kuerten said. “His concert repertoire will cover a wide variety of classical piano music that is both technically and creatively challenging. In the interviews, we’ll try to ‘get behind the curtain,’ so to speak, to explore the music and understand what goes into its interpretation and performance.”

Yong’s performance will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday night at the Opelika Center for the Performing Arts, which is adjacent to Opelika High School.

For tickets, call 334.749.8105 or visit http://www.eastalabamaarts.org/.