Couple to play recital

Music professor Ik-Hwan Bae is well-known throughout the Bloomington music community and nationwide. But most people are unaware that his wife, Sung-Mi Im, is also an accomplished musician who has performed throughout the world. \nThe husband-and-wife team will perform in a faculty recital at 8 p.m. Saturday in Auer Hall. Im and Bae will perform music by Beethoven and Schoenfield. Cello professor Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi will join them in a piano trio by Mendelssohn.\nIm was born in Taegu, South Korea, in 1965. She comes from a musical tradition: Her father is an opera singer, her two sisters play the cello and the violin, and her mother is a well-known pianist in South Korea. \n"From when she was less than a year old, she expressed a keen interest and enthusiasm whenever I used to play the piano," her mother, Chung-Ja Chung, said.\nHearing music in the house all her life and Im's parents' influence were enough to decide her profession.\n"I never considered anything else for a career choice. From a very early age I knew I was going to be some sort of a musician," Im said.\nIm's mother said her talents were obvious from an early age. She started playing the piano when she was 3 and as a young girl she performed regularly with her sisters. Im studied piano at Seoul National University and came to the United States in 1988. She got her Master's in Piano Performance at Boston University, where she met Bae. She won the Kahn award for prolific talent on the piano at the university. Her career as a performance artist began when Im and Bae moved to New York City. \nBut Im is not a typical performer. She does not value competition and winning prizes as much as some musicians at a professional level do. \n"I don't like competition," she said. "Winning a contest doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean that you are going to develop into a truly great musician."\nIt's been nearly 13 years since she began performing, and although she might not believe in competitions, she said she loves to perform. She will be performing in Dallas and Seoul, South Korea, this spring and will revisit her country for another performance this summer. She will also be performing in Alaska and Texas in the summer.\nShe is now a mother and wife and said that while music is her passion, she has other interests that take up a considerable amount of her time. \n"I have four dogs. I spend a lot of time taking care of them. They are like my children," Im said. "I also have a keen interest in tropical fish and gardening. Also, being a mother and a professional musician at the same time can be very challenging."\nBut Chung said she wishes her daughter would put more emphasis on the performance.\n"In my eyes, she should be playing in more competitions and winning more," said Chung. \nIm said competitions take away from the true art of music, but said she withstands her mother's admonitions with good humor.\n"What can I say, my mother is a perfectionist," she said. "I don't regret the fact that I don't compete much ... That is not what music is about"