On the 26th of March, ‘The 2nd Hobsonian’ concert took place at the Seoul Arts Center. This concert, led by Ian Hobson, was created for the reunion of the UIUC (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) class of Prof. Hobson. The program consisted of many different piano pieces: A. Dvorak – Slavonic Dances for 2 pianos 8 hands Op. 72-2 (H. Suzuki), Op.46-1 (R. Keller), C. Saint-Saens/E. Guiraud – Danse Macabre Op.40 for 2 pianos 8 hands, J. Brahms – Waltz Op. 39, M. Mussorgsky – Pictures at an Exhibition and E. Chabrier/C. Chevillard – Espana for 2 pianos 8 hands. Along with the enjoyment that you can experience in these performances, the major benefit of this program was that the cost was relatively reasonable and all the money earned was sent to charity.
More in detail of Ian Hobson, he is an internationally acclaimed British pianist and conductor, who has been active in performing and teaching activities since winning the Leeds International Piano Competition in England. After receiving his bachelor's degree from the Royal Conservatory of Music and Cambridge University, he moved to the US in 1974 and received his master's and doctoral degrees from Yale University. He also studied conducting with Lorin Varencove Maazel, Sage Ozawa and Leonard Bernstein. Hobson released over 60 piano records, including Beethoven, Schumann Piano Sonatas, Brahms Piano Concertos, Hummel’s Piano Sonatas, Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos and Chopin Piano Series. His records were considered highly in many regions of the world, such as the US, Europe and Asia. Recently, he has been working at the University of Illinois for the last 40 years and in March 2015, he was appointed professor of piano at Seoul National University.
As an extremely talented pianist, Professor Hobson also participated in other campaigns such as ‘The 10th Send a Musical Instrument of Love’ (사랑의 악기 보내기 X). The host of this concert was also the Illinois Music School Alumni and the performance proceeds were spent on supporting musical instrument to elementary schools. Like these two programs, the Illinois Music School Alumni hosts variety of concerts where the incomes benefit the people who are in need. If there is a chance, attending similar concerts would bring positive impacts on both you and the benefiters.
JungWoo Cho Year 12 (Grade 11) Dulwich College Seoul
