Eun Jung Shon recently returned to Korea, where her performance career has taken off.

Enough Music to Go Around

Growing up in Korea, Eun Jung Shon learned piano at a young age from her father, who was forced to abandon his own dreams of a music career when the Korean War intervened. As a teenager, she immigrated to the United States and studied at the Mannes Preparatory School in Manhattan.

When it was time for college, "I knew that Peabody was a famous school in the States," she says, "but frankly, I picked Peabody because I wanted to learn English, and this was the school that the fewest Koreans attended then. I thought if I go to school in Manhattan with my friends, I'll never learn English!" It proved to be a fortuitous choice, for as her friends were complaining about the competitiveness at their conservatories, she was experiencing a supportive, collegial atmosphere. "Here I felt very warm," she recalls. "Piano is more than just playing. It is about recognizing one's own innate talent and sharing a talent and passion for piano with others on stage and off stage."

"We just encourage our students to understand that there's enough music to go around and there's no need to feel competitive," Ellen Mack explains. "I think the fact that the members of this faculty are friendly, respectful of one another, and admiring of the various and significant talents of each other means that students see what is positive about collegiality."

Although Shon's reason for choosing Peabody may have been unusual, "what made me stay here for almost 15 years is my teacher, " she says. Shon earned four degrees—a bachelor's of music, graduate performance diploma, master's of music, and artist diploma—at Peabody between 1994 and 2004. The young pianist is already well-launched on a promising career, having performed at such revered venues as the Musikverein in Vienna. She also bested 10 finalists in all instruments classes with a rendition of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto to win the grand prize at the 2005 Seoul Arts Center Festival Soloist Competition.

Shon recently returned to Korea with her husband, a bassoonist she met at Peabody, and their toddler daughter. Motherhood has not slowed her down, however. She has performed in 20 concertsin six months, wowing audiences with her extensive repertoire, which covers most style periods. As a soloist, she plays mostly music from the 19th century, and as a chamber musician, selections from the same period up to the present. In addition to performing, she teaches young musicians at the Seoul Arts Center Music Academy and Yewon School for the Arts. Music, she finds, is an especially gratifying career in her homeland, where newsstands even feature a popular magazine devoted entirely to piano.

Mack, who couldn't be happier about her student's success, is herself an institution at Peabody. A Californian who has performed throughout the world and was pianist for the classes of Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky, she was hired at Peabody in the 1960s along with her former husband Berl Senofsky (now deceased) and has been chair of the Piano Department for the past six years. Before she came, "I didn't even know where Baltimore was!" she declares. "It was accidental, but it worked out that this was the best place for me."

"We have a wonderful mentor in Leon [Fleisher]," Mack adds. "There's real artistry and excellence at the very highest level, and that encourages everyone to want to do a good job. If our students take advantage of everything that's here—hundreds of free concerts, master classes in all fields, just sitting in the library reading and listening—they have the opportunity to become very accomplished budding musicians. That adjective has to be there, because becoming a musician is a lifelong goal."