When a major stroke paralysed South Korean pianist Lee Hun's right side in 2012, he first worried about whether he would ever walk again. Playing the piano was not even a consideration. He returned to the piano only after a mentor told him about a large number of piano pieces for the left hand alone. After exhaustive practice, he made a comeback, playing recitals as South Korea's only known professional left-hand-only pianist.
He is now preparing for a new challenge: his first joint performance with an orchestra at an international music festival next month. 'I'm so, so nervous I could die,' Lee, 54, said with a smile during a recent interview at his Seoul home. 'It's just one concerto but working with an orchestra has its own difficulties.'
In August 2012, Lee, then a doctorate candidate at the University of Cincinnati, collapsed at his home. He survived after extensive surgery, but the stroke damaged about 60% of his brain's left hemisphere. He could not move his right arm and leg and suffered temporary aphasia. He was later brought back to South Korea in a wheelchair.
Things began changing after he dined with his former piano teacher, Chun Yung Hae, in 2013. Chun encouraged him to play the piano again, saying there were more than 1,000 pieces for the left hand alone. That rekindled his passion for the piano, and Lee began practising immediately that night. In 2016, he made a formal debut as a one-handed pianist at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, where he received treatment and rehabilitation.
On May 2, Lee is to appear at the annual Icheon Young-Artist International Music Festival in South Korea, performing Ravel's 'Piano Concerto for the Left Hand' with a festival orchestra. Lee said he hopes to make a two-handed comeback one day, having succeeded in pressing a piano key once with his right hand at a concert in November 2024. Medically, prospects for regaining use of his right hand are dim, but his doctor noted that there have been reports of miraculous recoveries.
