Three of the six semi-finalists in the 2016 Carl Nielsen Violin Competition come from South Korea, and the Carl Nielsen Violin Competition isn’t the only competition in which South Korean musicians do well. They shine in any classical music competition they enter, and one reason for this success is that children in South Korea learn to cope with pressure from an early age. This is certainly the view of Soo-Jin Hong, leader of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, who also comes from South Korea.

She says: "Even as tiny tots Korean kids learn to cope with extreme pressure. To get into a music school you have to audition, and if you get in you have to do loads of exams and competitions. So when they enter international competitions South Korean musicians have far more experience of performing under pressure”.

Another reason is their work ethic. Discipline and hard work aren’t just a feature of Korean musicians: all the Koreans are like that, she says.

“In South Korea you don’t have a choice: determination is a must. Unlike Denmark there is no safety net to catch you if you don't make it”, she says, adding that there are pros and cons to both societies, and that we can all learn from each other.

Han: a quality unique to South Korea

But discipline and hard work aren’t the only reasons for the success of Korean musicians, she says. The South Koreans have a particular kind of expressiveness when they play that derives from the Korean national psyche. Soo-Jin Hong calls it “han”. Roughly translated it means the feeling you get from supressing your emotions.

“We Koreans come with a great deal of baggage. In many ways we feel branded as a people. We have a cruel history. We have been through a terrible war and as a people we are divided”, she says. She always picks up the “han” when Korean musicians play.