culture

Kim Kyong Ae, a student of Kwangmyong Senior Middle School in Mangyongdae District, Pyongyang, won three consecutive victories by taking the first place in piano playing in the category of Western instrumental music of the 61st National Schoolchildren’s Art Festival held this year.

According to Ri Song Juk, an instructor of the Mangyongdae Schoolchildren’s Palace, the juries who saw Kyong Ae playing the piano in the contests held so far appreciated unanimously that she is well-grounded in piano playing and, in particular, she is able to play each music piece well by combining its meaning and the mood of its melody as one.

Kyong Ae began to learn to play the piano in her kindergarten days.

One day her teacher happened to read a poem she wrote. Though it was imperfect, the poem itself was poetic and sentimental.

The teacher thus began to observe her, paying special attention to her.

In the course of it, she found that the little girl has an aptitude for sound detection and sight reading and that she especially likes the piano.

Then she began teaching her hearing, sight reading and piano playing skills.

Before long, the girl became able to play any sheet music in any tonality on the piano and express her feelings by composing music for words she wrote.

It is said that in her kindergarten days, she wrote music for the words of more than 10 songs to surprise experts and produced a collection of her own works.

Her skills have improved day by day in her middle school days after her primary school days.

She often plays the piano solo “The Blue Sky over My Country”.

She played it at the 60th National Schoolchildren’s Art Festival held last year to win first place.

She said that whenever she plays the melody, she inwardly pictures the clear blue sky over the country. She continued:

“My talents have been brought into full bloom thanks to the loving care of the respected fatherly Marshal Kim Jong Un who ensures that we cultivate our talents to our heart’s content while providing us with ‘Sonamu’-brand schoolbags, ‘Mindulle’ notebooks and ‘Haebaragi’ school things. I will become a music teacher who trains art talents of the future under the blue sky of my country which will be everlasting thanks to the respected fatherly Marshal.”

She is still improving her artistic skills while learning to her heart’s content at the Mangyongdae Schoolchildren's Palace.