Self Potrait

Hello! My name is Catherine Han. I'm a piano performance major. I'm from Long Island. I'm a bit on the shy side although I have gotten much better during my years here at Fredonia. Having the chance to communicate with all different types of people have allowed me to open up immensely. I'm also short, and for some reason, that makes me have low self-confidence in myself. As a result, I actually tend to slouch a lot.

Music has always been an immense part of my life. Ever since the age of 5, I was immersed in the world of music by learning to play the piano. Later on at the age of 8, I learned to play the violin. I find it amusing how my parents have no musical talent whatsoever yet I have been blessed with the gift of being really talented. I love playing music since I feel I'm in a completely different world and I'm able to let go of all my feelings and just completely be immersed into the music. I have the capability of releasing any tension I may have had over any strenuous school work, or just simply for the pleasure of enjoying music.

Being a musician, I believe my body can identify myself regarding the type of person I am. In my opinion, the most apparent body part of all would probably be my hands. My hands and fingers are extremely soft and delicate. I'm thinking this probably has something to do with the amount of practicing I've had on the piano over the years up until this day. To be able to play the piano, you must be extremely relaxed particularly in your arms, hands, and fingers. Some people may not know what a huge difference that makes, but it really makes a world of a difference! How contrasting the sound is between playing with rigid arms and fingers and extremely relaxed arms and fingers is absolutely amazing. The rest of my body is actually quite relaxed as well when I play the piano. However when I'm away from the piano, I look as if I'm not walking with a straight back, which is somewhat strange. Although, I blame this on my father since he's like that as well. I guess it was a hereditary trait, but what can you do? Now, going back to using my body parts to identify myself, I'm extremely gentle and careful about everything. That even applies to my own school-work. I always strive to be the best that I can be. I would say this strong drive to be near perfect comes from being in the music field and always feeling that I need to be the best since the music field is extremely competitive and of course everyone wants to be the top of the top. I've had this mindset ever since I was a young child. In my opinion, I feel this is a great mindset for myself in particular because it pushes and motivates myself to soar to even greater heights that I could ever imagine.

This is how I believe music has truly shaped the person I am today and how my body parts further illustrate that. Until next time!