Her passion for classical music is quite astounding for an 18-year-old. Since she started playing the violin at age 10, Soo Yuen Lee, CNMI’s home-grown classical violinist, has already performed in six major violin concertos.<\/p>\n
Her recent acceptance to John Hopkins University’s Peabody Conservatory of Music only confirms her musical genius.<\/p>\n
At the rate she is going now, she could easily be the next Vanessa Mae, the youngest violinist who at age 11 was pronounced a “true child prodigy – like Mozart and Mendelssohn” by the Royal College of Music.<\/p>\n
Do Re Mi School of Music founder and teacher Ao Zhang attests to Lee’s inborn musical talent.<\/p>\n
“She has always been a fast learner and she really has talent. She is the best student I’ve ever had,” Mr. Zhang said.<\/p>\n
But her craft has been built on years of sweat and patience.<\/p>\n
“My mom sometimes had to drag me to practice,” Soo admits, “But in time, I developed fondness for the music and a certain dedication.”<\/p>\n
For more than eight years, her routine has always revolved around school and 3-5 hours of violin practice each day.<\/p>\n
But despite the demands of school and long hours of rehearsals, Soo has been able to maintain straight A’s at Grace Christian Academy, where she is now a 12th grader.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Soo, her mother, has always been instrumental in getting Lee involved in music. Mrs. Soo who also plays the piano has instilled in her children to love music.<\/p>\n
“All parents want the best for their children,” said Mrs. Soo.<\/p>\n
When Lee is not playing the violin or doing her homework, she is usually surfing the world wide web, checking her e-mails, and chatting with her friends online.<\/p>\n
A typical teenager, she also listens to pop, hiphop, and rock music.<\/p>\n
Though her local friends can no more relate to classical music than any normal teenager, they usually give it a chance when they hear her play, according to Lee.<\/p>\n
“When she plays the violin, her friends usually like it,” said her Mom.<\/p>\n
Lee is off to Maryland in August for a scholarship at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, one of the best music schools in the mainland.<\/p>\n
“We are very proud of her,” says her teacher Mr. Zhang, “It’s very difficult to get in.”
\nThe music school only admits 15 students a year, Mr. Zhang adds.<\/p>\n
“I was very nervous. Aspiring musicians from all over the world auditioned for a slot at the school,” says Lee.<\/p>\n
As she takes the next leap to her achieving her life-long dream as a world-class musician, Lee definitely has the support of her parents and the teacher who has molded her into the right direction.<\/p>\n
“If she graduates from this school, she can join any orchestra and become famous,” says Mr. Zhang. (MM)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Her passion for classical music is quite astounding for an 18-year-old. Since she started playing the violin at age 10, Soo Yuen Lee, CNMI’s home-grown classical violinist, has already performed in six major violin concertos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}