Yiruma! My Gold Medalist

Arjun Pai, 4th Grade

When my parents sent me to piano class at the age of five, I was not interested at all. I did not want to practice, for I found it boring. I did not even want to go to class. One day while browsing on the internet on YouTube, I saw a video of a piano piece “River Flows in You”. The composer of the song was playing the piece. I liked the piece so much that I started to read about the composer, Yiruma. I found out that he is a South Korean pianist and composer. He was born on February 15, 1978 and started to learn piano at the age of five. In 1988, he moved to England, and in December 1996, he participated in the album “The Musicians of Purcell”. Yiruma is one of the youngest composers still living. He is only thirty-eight years old. Since he started to do performances at the age of ten, I think I can perform at the same age. I want to give him a gold medal, for he has inspired me to practice piano everyday and to try to compose music. If he visits the United States for a musical tour, I want to watch his performance from the front row and award him a gold medal myself. The gold medal should have a picture of a grand piano on it. If I ever met Yiruma, I would tell him that he is my most favorite composer and my role model. Although he does not live in Santa Clara County where I do and I have never met him in person I feel he is a citizen of the world and has touched me with his performances and his compositions.

When I turned nine, I was diagnosed with psoriasis. Psoriasis causes inflamed and itchy spots on the skin. My dermatologist said that reduction of stress can heal psoriasis along with other treatments. After listening to Yiruma’s music, I begged my parents to buy me a real piano. They agreed. I practiced piano everyday and recently figured out how to play Yiruma’s “River Flows in You”. I played this piece for my piano recital at the public library with much applause from the audience. Whenever I play this piece, I feel very relaxed. When my parents listen to me playing Yiruma’s works, they feel the same way as I do. His specialty is composing peaceful songs. These reduced my stress and my psoriasis is almost completely healed. I believe that his music has healing powers for some diseases caused by stress like psoriasis. One of my biggest dreams is to become a great pianist and composer like Yiruma and actually perform with him on a grand piano wearing a tuxedo like him. I am working hard to realize this dream.