Lee Hee-ah (born 9 July 1985) is a Korean pianist with only two fingers on each hand. The thumb of her left hand does not have any bones. She does not have any limbs below the knee on each leg. Her father was injured in a war and took morphine for 10 years as he was paralysed below the waist. Her mother took motion-sickness pills to deal with carsickness without realizing she was pregnant. These factors may have contributed to Lee's birth defects. Not letting them hold her back, Lee tours the world giving concerts with her ability to play pieces that would be difficult even for able-bodied pianists.
When she was 7, her mother started her on the piano to train her hands, which at the time couldn’t even hold a pencil. "However, as time went by, the piano became my source of inspiration and my best friend," she recalls. Soon she diligently practised piano for hours at a time trying really hard to improve. For example, she worked on one passage from Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu for five years.
In 1992, she won the First Prize at the Korean National Student Music Contest, and has since won many more contests and has also played in many solo-concerts along with playing with many well-known artists. She was even awarded by the then President of Korea, Kim Dae-jung, for Overcoming Physical Difficulty. She has also been recognized as one of the best students in Seoul by the Korean Education Department. She currently attends The Korean National College of Rehabilitation and Welfare.
Hee Ah Lee was born with sever physical deformities. She only had two fingers on each hand. And her legs ended at her knees. Her doctors didn’t expect her to live.
But she did live. At the age of six she started to play piano. At the time, her four fingers were very weak. She couldn’t even hold a pencil. Her mother hoped playing piano would strengthen her grip.
It worked. But more than that, Lee found a calling. She now tours the world, playing for stunned audiences. She plays pieces that would be difficult for able-bodied pianists.
TRUE Story according to TruthorFiction.com
The videos are real and Hee Ah Lee is Authentic. It is the story of a mother and a daughter who have overcome odds from the very beginning.
Lee’s mother became unexpectedly pregnant while married to a disabled man. Doctors told her that because of a medication she had been taking her child would not be normal. She elected to continue with the pregnancy and in 1985 in Seoul, South Korea, little Hee Ah Lee was born with only two fingers on each hand, disfigurement of her legs, and slight brain injury. The hospital told Sun that she could not care for the child at home and relatives wanted her to place the child for adoption in a foreign country. Sun thought her baby was beautiful, however, and was determined that she would live a successful life.
When Lee was a pre-schooler her mother decided that she wanted her daughter to take piano lessons and for two reasons. One was that she felt it would help her strengthen her hands so she could hold a pencil. The other was that she felt that if she could master the piano, she could master anything. For six months piano schools turned them down then the one teacher who did accept the task got discouraged and wanted to quit. It became a three-month contest of wills between mother and daughter that led to a confrontation in which Sun actually threw her daughter on the floor in frustration. She said Lee got back up on the piano bench and for the first time played the children’s song she had been trying to learn. That was the turning point and one year later Lee won the grand prize in a piano concert for Kindergartners. It was at age 7 that Lee won Korea’s 19th National Handicap Conquest Contest and was presented with her award by the President of Korea.
Today Lee is 22, has won numerous awards, and is a widely traveled concert pianist with more than 200 appearances. Her first album titled “Hee-ah, a Pianist with Four Fingers” was to be released in June, 2008.
Lee gives tribute to her mother for challenging her to master the piano and said that although her training was difficult, “as time went by, the piano became my source of inspiration and my best friend.”
(source: Inspire 21)
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