A gifted Anchorage middle school pianist finds a new instrument and rediscovers his love for music

Han Keum sat at a black upright piano and carefully placed his fingers on the keys. The Anchorage eighth grader wore all black clothing just like he would if performing a concert. Then, inside of the classroom at Northern Lights ABC School, he began playing Frédéric Chopin’s Nocturne Number Nine.

Keum and his family came to Alaska from South Korea in 2014. His father, Won, is the pastor of a church where Keum plays piano alongside his mother, and his oldest brother plays the drums. With instruction from his mother and encouragement from his father, Keum has become one of the most talented young musicians in Anchorage. 

But he almost gave up on music before he discovered his love for violin as part of his school orchestra class.

“My mom is the one who taught me piano,” Keum said. “Sometimes I play the violin, my mom plays the piano, she accompanies me when I play the violin so I think that’s like, really just in general, fun.”

In sixth grade, Keum wanted to join the orchestra class, but that meant choosing a new instrument — one with strings. A member of his church gave him a violin and he began learning to play, mostly by himself. 

Northern Lights ABC School Orchestra teacher Katie Eakes saw Keum’s talent early on, but couldn’t hear him play in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With no orchestra to rehearse with, Keum bowed the strings of the violin for Eakes over a Zoom call. 

“He’s gone from being a beginner to being top of the line for his age and his age group, and compared to his peers he’s really kind of shooting for the stars,” Eakes said.

Keum said he almost gave up on music. In fifth grade, he attempted to learn his father’s favorite song on the piano — Chopin’s Revolutionary etude — but was unable to master the complicated piece of music. He stopped playing piano briefly. It was too stressful. But he said his teacher, Katie Eakes, helped him rediscover why he played in the first place. 

“Mrs. Eakes really taught me how like fun it was to just be involved in music in general,” he said. “So just overall Mrs. Eakes has taught me how to have fun with music, so I think that’s what brought me back to the piano as well.” 

In 2022, Keum attended the Anchorage Chamber Music Festival summer intensive, an eight-day event for musicians from middle school to their mid-20s. Keum only planned to play his violin, but he surprised his peers and competition judges when he signed up on piano for the student competition.

Zachary Spontak plays in the symphony in Lisbon, Portugal, and serves as the Education Director for the Anchorage Chamber Music Festival. He helped judge the competition Keum entered last summer.

Taking a bit of revenge on the Chopin piece that had eluded him, Spontak said Keum nailed the Revolutionary Etude during the competition.

“He comes out and plays this amazingly virtuosic, fast, very difficult piece of music and we just didn’t see it coming,” Spontak said. “It was pretty cool you know, we didn’t know what to expect and we were just kind of blown away, so it was awesome.”

He won.

Spontak said that not only was Keum the youngest musician entered in the competition, he was the only one who played two instruments during the summer intensive. 

“He really puts in the work, you know, and I really respect that, so he gets it done and of course he has the nice help from his mother and, well, both his parents,” Spontak said. “He really motivates himself, too, so I think that he’s on the right path.”

Keum will perform for the last time with the Northern Lights ABC School orchestra May 10, and has already auditioned for advanced orchestra at Service High School, which he will attend next fall. 

“My goals with music is just to be able to be good enough to make other people happy or feel emotions while listening to me play,” Keum said.

Keum said he hopes to share his music with others, and to one day teach young musicians just as his mother and Eakes taught him.