Becoming an instrument of hope

A 7-year-old girl with only two fingers on each hand should be thrilled at the idea that someday she might be able to tap out a simple children's tune on the piano.

At least, that's what Woodrow (Wooj) Byun of Edina would have thought -- until recently. Then one night last April, he ran across a YouTube video of Hee Ah Lee, a young four-fingered Korean pianist. Her hands were flying over the keys in Chopin's "Fantasie-Impromptu."

(The YouTube video can be seen here.)

Hee Ah Lee's music brings tears to many listeners' eyes. But Byun was especially moved, he says. He had been searching the world for a performer just like her.

Byun could not have guessed then that on Sunday he would be introducing Hee Ah Lee to the people of Minnesota at a concert at Hopkins High School Auditorium.

Byun and Hee Ah Lee, now 23, came together by a circuitous path. Byun practices law in Edina. In 1990, he came to America from Korea to attend the University of Minnesota Law School on a Rotary Club International Ambassadorial Scholarship. Since then, he has stayed close to his homeland's culture, helping out at an annual culture camp for Korean adoptees at Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis.

There, last year, Byun noticed a young boy with short arms and malformed fingers. He was touched by seeing the boy's challenges as he interacted with other children.

"I couldn't get his image out of my mind," says Byun. "I thought, Is there any way I can help him, any inspiration I can give him? I had to find out -- has any one with a similar condition achieved great things?"

So Byun began the search that eventually led him to Hee Ah Lee. She has a condition called phocomelia, which involves abnormally shaped limbs - in her case, only two fingers per hand and no legs below her knees.

When Hee Ah Lee was 6 years old, her fingers were so weak her parents feared she wouldn't be able to feed herself, says Byun. They searched for a way to strengthen her fingers to hold a spoon, or a pencil, and hit on the idea of a piano. But teachers rejected it as impossible.

So Hee Ah Lee's mother began to coach her daughter herself, and taught her to play a children's song. After hearing the girl perform, an astonished teacher agreed to take her on.

At age 7, Hee Ah Lee achieved a superior rating in a national youth piano contest. At 12, she devoted herself to one classical piece - Chopin's Fantasie-Impromptu - and practiced 10 hours a day for five years to perfect it. Then, with her newfound confidence, she tackled pieces by other great composers, including Liszt and Beethoven.

At the same time, Hee Ah Lee battled other obstacles: A head injury at age 13, her father's death and her mother's breast cancer. Today, she is a beloved celebrity in Korea -- recording, performing internationally, and serving as a torch carrier in Korea for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

"The instrument used to strengthen her is now the instrument she uses to give hope to others," says Byun.

As Byun contemplated Hee Ah Lee's spirit and accomplishments, a "crazy idea" took shape in his head, he says.

"I wanted to bring her here -- I wanted her to meet the boy. She can inspire everyone -- not just disabled people. I thought, 'If she can play Chopin with four fingers and no feet, then what should we be able to do with 10 fingers and two legs?'"

Byun didn't know how he would organize and finance such a venture. But before dropping his idea, he talked it over with his colleagues at the Edina Rotary Club. A Rotary scholarship gave him his start in America, and the organization's motto is "Service above self." He always gets his best advice, he jokes, from these "150 Scandinavians."

At a lunch meeting, Byun told the club about Hee Ah Lee and showed them a DVD about her life. Afterward, club members approached and handed him checks totaling $2,200. "They said, 'You've got to do it,'" he recalls. "Don't let money stop you."

Since then, Byun has been busy planning the Hopkins concert. He wants as many people as possible to meet -- and be inspired by -- Hee Ah Lee, whose weeklong stay will include visits to an Edina school and a children's hospital ward. And of course, she'll have lunch with the Edina Rotary Club. "At last, everyone will get to meet her in person," beamed Byun.

Best of all, Byun added, he recently learned that the boy who triggered the whole project will be able to attend the concert. He will be in the audience, Byun expects, as Hee Ah Lee demonstrates that the ability to perform the world's piano masterpieces comes from someplace deeper than the fingertips.

Katherine Kersten • kkersten@startribune.com Join the conversation at my blog, www.startribune.com/thinkagain.