Meet Hee Won Jeon, a world class cellist studying at Jacobs School of Music
Hee Won Jeon, a cellist now preparing to write her doctoral dissertation at the Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, remembers the moment she knew she was doing exactly the right thing pursuing a life of music.
“I was in a classroom of little kids when one of them came up and pointed at my cello and shouted: 'What… is…that!’”
She played a few notes for him. He smiled broadly and declared his love for the funny looking thing with strings.
“That really touched my heart,” she said, chatting recently over a cup of coffee at Hopscotch.
Jeon, besides having a busy schedule of orchestra performances — Louisville Orchestra; Eastern Festival Orchestra in Greensboro, N.C.; Terre Haute Symphony; Richmond Symphony; Columbus Philharmonic; Carmel Symphony (assistant principal); — also teaches cello.
Every Tuesday she drives 134 miles round trip to Zionsville where she is cello sectionals instructor at both the middle school and high school.
Besides coaching students’ playing, “I tell them what happens in a professional orchestra, my experiences.” Laughing, she added, “And they are amazed to hear how different it sounds when they play and when I play!”
Jeon has had a few more years at it: now 30, she began playing in sixth grade. In later years, as her resume notes, she studied with Pacifica Quartet, Natalia Gutman, and Gustav Rivinius, among others.
Growing up in a professional family in Seoul, Korea, Jeon has lived and studied in Canada, New York City, and Germany — all before enrolling at the Jacobs School, where she’s now in the studio of Professor Emilio Colon.
She arrived in Bloomington with a Bachelor of Music degree from Johannes Gutenberg University, in Mainz, Germany, and now holds an M.M. from I.U.
Jeon said that Mainz is where she acquired her cello, an instrument made in 1826. She plays with a French bow.
Her next local performance is at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7, at Meadowood, the retirement home at 2455 Tamarack Trail, Bloomington. Admission is free.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: World-class cellist to share love of music at Meadowood Tuesday
