Pianist Nam prepares for next Stepping Stone
Ex-edmonton resident heads to national competition
When she was six years old, Michelle Nam sat down at a piano for the first time.
According to her mother, she didn’t get up again for four hours. “Many people think we choose the music,” Nam says. “But I think music chose me. Music chose me to be a pianist.”
The pianist is one of 30 young people travelling to Ottawa for Stepping Stone 2012, a national competition that has helped launch the careers of many well-known Canadian musicians, notably pianist Marc-André Hamelin, Edmonton trumpet virtuoso Jens Lindemann, flutist Susan Hoeppner and violinist Barry Schiffman.
The biennial contest is open to classical instrumentalists between the ages of 16 and 28, as well as vocalists up to the age of 31. The winner gets $10,000 and a demo produced and recorded by Radio-Canada.
Nam, 27, moved to Edmonton in her teens to study with piano instructor Wolfram Linnebach, who she’d done a master’s class with in her native Korea. After graduating from Harry Ainlay high school, she travelled east to further her education, receiving a master’s degree from the prestigious performing arts school Juilliard. After more studies in Hartford, Conn., she’s returning to the Big Apple to pursue an artistic diploma at the Manhattan School of Music with Phillip Kawin.
“Being a musician is having sensitivity, the ears and eyes to pick up something that already exists and recreate it with sound,” she says. “It’s a process of creating but also not creating. We are mediators. We are making something real with sound.”
She adds: “Classical music is not just a whim. Many people think it’s emotion, but it’s a philosophy.”
Nam isn’t a fan of competition, though she does seem to excel at it. Since the age of 10, she’s come tops in many events in Korea and Canada, including Edmonton’s Shean Piano Competition in 2005 and the International Keyboard Institution and Festival’s 2010 competition.
“I don’t like the idea of competition, because everyone has individuality. But I just go there for the opportunity to stand in front of the public,” she says. “It’s another stepping stone to get a greater opportunity to play in front of many people. I think I’m more ready than another period of my life. I know what I’m playing and what I want to say, and I want everyone to hear it.”
She competed in Stepping Stone six years ago and was eliminated early on, learning “how to deal with disappointment, with reality” as well as “how to keep your inner strength inside, so nobody even hears it.”
A thoughtful, spiritual person, Nam’s Christian faith is what fuels her discipline as a pianist.
“The more I perform, I get affirmation from God that I have to perform in the world. It’s not a want; my life goes through it. It became my wish and ultimate goal, to communicate with the audience.
“Music without spirituality is empty, it’s nothing.”
Stepping Stone 2012 takes place June 3-10.