Yoonie Han, winner of the 2011 Washington International Piano Competition, has sought new experiences ever since winning the Korea National Music Competition at age 15 and subsequently fending for herself in the United States. The vivacious pianist has chosen to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 at her Kennedy Center debut simply because it is a new piece for her and one she has always wanted to perform. She began pursuing the arts as a child. Her first choice was ballet, but she was thrown out of the class at age 10 because she was so fat the boys couldn’t lift her. Her next choice, the piano, proved far more successful.

“I was 14 when my father became an exchange professor at Rutgers University,” she said. “He had always wanted a son, so being a traditional South Korean family, he and my mother decided to return home when my brother was born. I chose to remain and move to New York. Because I was too young to get an apartment lease, my English tutor became my guardian.”