Student Profile: Seho Young, Concerto Competition Winner
Seho Young, a 2024 winner of Northwestern's Concerto Competition, recently sat down for an interview about his upcoming concert. Seho will be playing Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54 with the Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra on April 24 at 7:30 p.m. in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall.
What first sparked your interest in music, and/or what drew you to the piano?
I think my earliest experiences with music were entirely rhythmic—I would always be tapping or banging out rhythms on surfaces (which I still do sometimes when I'm in deep concentration, to the annoyance of others). Raised by an engineer father, I've always been fascinated by machinery and technology. I was probably drawn to the piano because it is the most immediate and economical instrument (besides the human voice): you press a button, and sound plays. I then became obsessed over the different ways I could press these 88 buttons.
How have you prepared for Schumann's Piano Concerto? Have you personalized this piece to make it your own? Were there unique challenges or rewards with this piece?
I think the Schumann [Concerto] is a severely underrated piece, and it captures musically an unadulterated, warm, and brilliant form of love in a way that no other piece does. For this reason, this was a piece that I intentionally delayed learning until I felt I was emotionally ready. The circle of fifths progression in the coda of the third movement alone—the emotional climax of the piece, in my opinion, and one of the most touching moments of Schumann—is a reward for me.
What are your musical goals?
My musical goals align with my overall life goals, which are to do things no one has done before and to make a positive impact on the world. Although many specific parts of the path towards those goals are not yet clear, I know that music (performing, creating, and teaching) is how I would like to achieve them.
What are you listening to right now?
I've been listening to a lot of non-classical music recently: Ivy Lab, Noisia, Gesaffelstein, Kendrick Lamar, and Grover Washington, Jr. In the classical genre I've enjoyed Cage Sonatas and Interludes by Boris Berman, Mozart Piano Concertos by Malcolm Bilson and The English Baroque Soloists, and Schubert Symphony No. 9 by Georg Solti and the Vienna Philharmonic.