ANDERSON — It all began at a piano competition, when Anderson University’s Randall Frieling and Indiana Wesleyan’s Phoenix Park-Kim were serving as judges.
During their two days at the Hartman Stickley Memorial Piano Competition in South Bend, the two pianists tossed around the idea of performing together. That’s exactly what will happen Thursday night in the Fine Arts Building on the AU campus.
“It should be really fun,” said Frieling by phone from Ohio.
“She’s an aggressive performer, and I like that. ... We have very pianissimo places and very loud, fortissimo places. We both match that way, I think.
“And we get along, so it’s nice to work with someone that you don’t have to fight over every phrase.”
Park-Kim agreed with Frieling, to a point.
“Actually, Randy suggested a program first,” she said. “And then I went through them and realized that they were all like his personality. A lot of the pieces were very rhythmic and happy, boisterous, you know, full of sound.
“With my personality, there was a little bit of conflict. I wanted to do a little more delicate and pretty pieces as well, not so percussive and loud.”
Park-Kim, laughing, said she proposed the Mozart and Saint-Saëns, as she felt they were “very different from the other pieces. They’re a bit more pleasant, more melodic, soothing and peaceful.”
Park-Kim, who has been with IWU for five years, was born in South Korea and began performing publicly at 7. Since then, the 36-year-old has performed in the United States, Italy, Switzerland, Russia and in her homeland.
Park-Kim, who met her husband while earning a master’s at Miami University of Ohio, went onto to a doctorate at the University of Missouri at Kansas City’s Conservatory.
The job at IWU is her first.
“The people are very friendly,” she said of her new Hoosier location. “And I’m amazed that every small city has its own orchestra, like Anderson and Marion.
“I used to live in Kansas City, which is a lot more urban. And there are pros and cons, but here, my neighbor, for example, mows my lawn when I’m out of town. I never had that kind of closeness with my neighbors in Kansas City. I love it here.”
Contact Rodney Richey, 640-4861, rodney.richey@heraldbulletin.com.
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