Yang Sung-won reflects on 50 years with cello

Unlike many musicians who celebrate the anniversary of their public debut, South Korean cellist Yang Sung-won is marking something more personal: 50 years since a life-altering performance inspired a 7-year-old to trade the piano for the cello.

That moment dates back to March 10, 1975, when Hungarian American cellist Janos Starker gave a performance in Seoul — one that would set the course of Yang’s life. Years later, he became not only his student, but also his assistant, entrusted to teach in his place.

“I received a letter saying I was accepted into Starker’s class. That may have been one of the happiest moments of my life,” he recalled at a press conference in Seoul on Tuesday. He joined Starker’s class at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 1987, where the legendary cellist taught from 1958 until his death in 2013.

Yang is now a professor of cello at Yonsei University’s School of Music in Seoul and a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He also serves as artistic director of the Music in PyeongChang classical music festival and has been awarded the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government.

“I probably won't have another 50 years but in the time I have left, I hope to encourage younger musicians so they can pursue this profession with a greater sense of courage," the 57-year-old said.

Yang highlighted the next generation of Korean musicians: Cho Seong-jin, Lim Yunchan, Clara-Jumi Kang, Song Ji-won, Kim Han, Kim Ki-hoon and more.

“There are so many I can’t even list them all. It is important to note that beneath the very top-tier artists, there are many more outstanding musicians in Korea. That’s one of the country’s greatest strengths,” he said.

He credited their brilliance to not just education or training, but to something deeper.

“It’s in our blood. Our gugak tradition gives us expressive emotion. That’s how these young musicians conquered the world,” Yang remarked.

In an age defined by acceleration and automation, Yang said classical music is more relevant than ever.

"AI might surprise me, but it won’t move me,” he said. “And in that sense, I feel lucky. I really have a good job.”

Still, there were times he nearly walked away from the cello.

The first time was when he was in Paris studying at Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris, where a competitive atmosphere left him feeling displaced.

“I thought music is about going deeper, not about competition. At that time, I was even thinking about studying something again,” he recalled.

The second time was in the early 1990s. Life on the road — planes, trains, rehearsals — wore him down. “I thought about living peacefully in nature but it never lasted long. Two or three days at most.”

What brought him back each time were great performances.

“Some concerts move you so deeply, they remind you why you began. That’s what opened the cello case again,” he recalled.

Now Yang is celebrating 50 years of the cello with an album and a "marathon concert."

On Tuesday, via Decca Records, he released the album “Echoes of Elegy: Elgar," which pairs Op. 84 and Op. 85 — two pieces rarely featured together.

The centerpiece of the album is Edward Elgar’s Piano Quintet, Op. 84, a deeply introspective work composed in the shadow of World War I. Yang noted that this was one of the last pieces Elgar heard before his death. “It shows his inner world,” he said.

On May 27, Yang will perform a “marathon concert” featuring Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, Elgar’s Cello Concerto and Dvorak’s Cello Concerto — each the only cello concerto written by its composer.

Despite the title "marathon concert," for Yang it is not so much about stamina or display.

“This concert is actually a ‘marathon of gratitude’ — a chance to express my gratitude to my parents, my teachers, my colleagues and my family,” he said. “These three pieces carry all the pivotal moments in my life. I’m afraid I might not be able to concentrate — there’s too much memory inside them.”