Ji-Hae Park: Star violinist with fealty for ice hockey

Ji-Hae Park is one of the exceptional talents in the world. However, people tend to forget that to become as professional and famous was a hard way to go.

She grew up with her mother in the city of Mainz close to Frankfurt am Main. Her mother, also a musician, studied violin in the pittoresque German town close to the Rhine and Main rivers.

One thing about Ji-Hae Park certainly is her honesty. Therefore, she shares her story to the world. Luckily so.

The first thing she learned wasn’t, actually not surprinsingly, to read letters but music. When she was young, her idol was Anne-Sophie Mutter and she aimed to play as well as her. She practiced so hard that she almost ruined her health. The results were good, though: as a teenager, she won the price at the national German competition “Jugend musiziert”, also received international prizes and two gold records. Her mother became her teacher and even though she was strict regarding practice and discipline but nothing compared to the pressure that Ji-Hae Park herself put on herself.

She practiced like an obsessed woman, so much so that her mother often forced her to take a break. Her daughter forgot to eat, barely slept. Something needed to change urgently.

Her professor during her studies eventually became her salvation. He managed to convince her that she needed help. The then successful violinist was physically treated and for the first time in her life took a break. Instead of making music herself, she began to listen to it without any pressure. In a passive way, she became able to actually enjoy music as such for the first time. And she found herself positively lost in it, it deeply touched her heart.

In an interview with the Online Magazine “Business Insider”, she said: “With so many people suffering from depression, it’s important to share my story with them. This disease brings people mentally and physically to an end. At some point, you can not help but give up your whole life. I forgot at the time that you can never be exactly like someone else.”

Today, her home is South Korea and she is living the dream of many violinists. At the age of only 32, she is already one of the most celebrated musicians of our time. In Korea, she fills concert halls with up to 100,000 fans and is hailed and celebrated. Still, she practices for up to 12 hours a day when she feels like it. But she also knows when it’s time to take a break, something she has learned.

She is a UNESCO honorary ambassador and scholarship holder of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, which provided her with one of the famous Guarneri violins from 1730 which she can use for lifetime thanks to anonymous support.

In her lectures, the petite young woman talks engagingly about her life story. She talks about success and about the hard work that goes with it. She gives tips on how to get the most out of yourself, how to “play” your life and stay motivated. But she pleads not to forget yourself. Because this you is what is the most important.

Ji-Hae Park also wants to talk about her way of creating peace. She knows how it is to live in different worlds: her two home countries Germany and Korea could not be more different. Still, she feels deeply connected to bot and explains cultural differences and how to understand each other.

If you want to experience the charismatic Ji-Hae Park live, please contact us at: jihae.park@premium-speakers.com