Meeting Min

My friend Peiming, a PhD student in piano at U of M, told me she was inviting a couple of friends to dinner at Great Lakes restaurant, where she and I had arranged to meet. She mentioned that one of them is a Singapore violinist, and I, being used to Peiming's usual description of music school students as pianist, cellist, flautist etc., assumed that this would be your average, talented U of M music school undergraduate. When I met Min Lee, I was startled to find myself shaking hands with one of Singapore's most famous music prodigies, also known as Lee Huei Min.

Min has performed around the world, has recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for her debut album, is armed with a master's degree from Yale, and had spent four years at Michigan during the early nineties in the pre-college division of the music school. I wondered why in heaven's name would this gifted musician be in Michigan as a student again. It turns out that she needs to have a completed bachelor's degree to qualify her master's degree, which she received at the tender age of sixteen. So she decided to return to Michigan where she will spend two years playing violin - but will still be able to travel and hold performances - in order to receive her bachelor's degree. She is a junior this year, probably the only junior who already has a master's under her belt and many more accolades.

View these and more on her website here.

Did I learn anything particular about Min? It's rude to stare and scrutinize (and worse to write it down for all to read; ahem, not that I stared much in the first place), but I did notice that the attractive and articulate violinist is left-handed (though she plays the violin as a right-hander would), like many bright, talented people I know. Peiming is one, and she's an excellent pianist. And there's Lin Kiat too, the left-hander I know well and love.