On the 19th of December 2017, the distant concert between Seoul Cyber University (SCU) and Association of Tchaikovsky Competition Stars (ATCS) occurred via the musical instrument, called disklavier. It was a phenomenal event for both institutions as the concert was taking place with a great distance between Seoul and Moscow.

At the concert, Rector Aleksandr Sokolov of Moscow Conservatory was present along with Director Andrey Scherbak of ATCS to deliver the messages of greetings to the guests from SCU. Likewise, Chairman Se-Ung Lee and President Eunjoo Lee also participated in the concert to acknowledge the endeavour and effort for all who contributed to the disklavier connection.

For a brief introduction, disklavier is a type of pianos produced by Yamaha Corporation and was first introduced to the United States in the year of 1987. Disklavier is a mixture of the classical music instrument and the modern technology. While disklavier has all the framework of the classical piano with the wooden keys, the sound from each key is immediately picked up by the electronic sensors and transmitted as far as 6,000 miles or more to another disklavier at the other side of the world.

The concert between SCU and ATCS had last about an hour or so to host the wonderful musicians from SCU and ATCS. Russian students from ATCS played excerpts from Chopin’s Etude to Tchaikovsky’s Seasons. In response, students from SCU presented the beautiful melodies from Haydn, Lizst and so forth. In the finale, Professor Aleksandr Vershinin showed off his improvisions on Jazz and other musical pieces to conclude the concert to an unforgettable end.

However, it was not entirely viable to make a proper disklavier connection in the first place. Over the past few years, SCU and ATCS had tried to stabilize the disklavier connection despite the technological discrepancy and miscommunication. With the difference of time zone and internet connection, the staff members at SCU and ATCS found it almost impossible to solve the technical problems in the disklavier connection.

In order to make a successful connection between the disklaviers, it was imperative to route the IP address into a correct direction, and adjust and stabilize the internet speed for the disklaviers. In particular, when the disklavier connection was to be reached over the borders of different countries, it became exceedingly difficult to take into consideration all the mandatory conditions that facilitate the disklavier connection. 

 However, the disklavier connection was finally made after the repetitive tryouts and the rigmarole of technical assessments. As a result, the disklaver connection between SCU and ATCS had improved significantly over a dozen of test lessons and eventually became suitable for a formal distant concert to commemorate the achievement.