Husband-and-wife duo to perform at Southeastern Piano Festival
Individually decorated musicians Soyeon Kate Lee and Ran Dank are a team in more ways than one: They frequently perform together as a piano duo, as they will at the Southeastern Piano Festival – and they are married to each other.
Lee is assistant professor of music in piano at University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. She was the first-prize winner of the 2010 Naumburg International Piano Competition (where Dank took second place) and the 2004 Concert Artist Guild International Competition.
Dank, who has worked as director of piano studies and assistant professor at College of Charleston, was the first-prize winner at the 2008 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, and he won the Sander Buchman Memorial First Prize at the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions.
In 2013, the pair performed a special concert of several four-handed piano compositions – four days before their wedding. Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times reviewed the concert, calling their selections from Brahm’s 16 Waltzes “charming” and their premiere of a “fiercely difficult work,” “Two Hands” by Frederic Rzewski, absorbing and exhilirating.
Lee and Dank will perform at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at USC School of Music Recital Hall, 813 Assembly St. Tickets are $20 for general admission, $5 for students and free for ages 18 and younger at sepf.music.sc.edu.
Other festival events include two installations of the Marian Stanley Tucker Guest Lecture Series with lecturer and pianist Sergei Babayan, a master teacher on the faculties of The Juilliard School and Cleveland Institute of Music.
The session from 10 a.m. to noon will feature festival participants and students of the South Carolina Music Teachers Association. The 4:30 p.m. session features an open-panel discussion moderated by Marina Lomazov, a USC professor and the festival’s founder and artistic director.
Both sessions are free.
Rebekah Lewis Hall, rhall@thestate.com
This story was originally published June 14, 2016 at 2:24 PM with the headline "Husband-and-wife duo to perform at Southeastern Piano Festival."