Current position: News: The Ceremony of Conferment of the title doctor honoris causa on Professor dr. Synn Ilhi
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LAUDATION
for the ceremony of awarding an honorary doctorate
to Professor SYNN ILHI
on 22nd February 2008
 |
| Professor Ryszard Zimak |
Professor Ryszard Zimak
Your Magnificence,
the High Senate!,
Distinguished Guests,
Pedagogues and Students!
I had a pleasure to prepare the laudation in honour of Prof. Synn Ilhi, former President of Keimyung University in Daegu, the renowned university in the Republic of Korea. It is an honour for me and for my home Department of Music Education that has been working since 1927 at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music. It needs to be pointed here that the Council of the Department of Music Education for the first time in history became the initiator of the process to award someone an honorary doctorate, the highest university distinction by our Academy.
The importance of this moment, when I am delivering the laudatory speech, is undeniable. This moment is unique, for today, on the twenty-second of February we celebrate the day of our Alma Mater. By creating the Statute establishing the Day of the Academy many years ago, the community of our Alma Mater wanted to emphasize that this is the school from which in 1829 Fryderyk Chopin, musical genius of all time, composer and pianist, graduated. And now the still unanswered question when exactly he was born - on the twenty-second of February (as it is written in the baptism certificate in the registers of the Saint John the Baptist and Saint Roch church in Brochów) or the first of March 1810, as Chopin himself once declared, is not important. It is worth emphasizing that today's ceremony takes place on the eve of celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Academy and it reminds us of our Patron and at the same time it is the day when another respectable figure - Professor Synn Ilhi is about to take his place in the pantheon of the Honorary Doctors of our Academy.
The initiative of the Department of Music Education, whose main goal is comprehensive education of students majoring in "Music Artistic Education", has an interdisciplinary character. This time the Council of the Department wanted to honour not an outstanding artist-musician, but a Pedagogue, a Human and an Animateur at the same time, who intensively worked for the benefit of music education and noticed unique values of combining music education with the development of a human's personality. He noticed those values in the context of what were the needs of his country and wanted to develop them for the future generations, according to the motto of Korea which is: "Benefit all mankind". I am convinced that Prof. Synn Ilhi much earlier thought about Poland and Polish system of music education, in this case represented by our oldest and largest music academy in Poland and one of the oldest such institutions in Europe. And maybe the spiritus movens of the interest in Poland
was the music of the great Chopin, Patron of our Alma Mater?
For many years, there have been attempts based on general rules to educate Korean students in Poland. Outstanding Polish pedagogues were invited to the Republic of Korea. One attempt to establish a branch of the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Seoul taken up by Korean organizers failed. It was Prof. Synn Ilhi who, without any doubt, created the idea of institutional music education of talented young people from Korea in Poland on the M.A. level. As President of Keimyung University in Daegu (third largest city in South Korea) holding the office for over 20 years (1978-1982 and 1988-2004), he lead to establishing permanent cooperation between Keimyung University and the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, whose Rector at that time was Prof. Andrzej Chorosiński. The numerous meetings with President of Keimyung University Prof. Synn Ilhi and his faith in the success of the new and pioneering project, whose future could not be predicted then, are unforgettable. Professor Synn Ilhi radiated with enthusiasm and had so much confidence in Polish partners and their competencies. Thanks to the fact that he was so convinced about the rightness of this decision, although Korean students were to be located in a remote country. However, as it seems, Polish and Korean people are close in terms of their history. I emphasize these facts with special satisfaction, because Prof. Synn Ilhi chose Polish academy from among the renowned European and American universities that he knew.
As I mentioned, as a results of President of Keimyung University's action, there was an agreement signed between our universities in 1999, concerning a common project of education for Korean students in the following specialties: composition, instrumental studies and vocal studies. This cooperation is still continued and after almost 10 years it reflects well on the high level of education at our Alma Mater, for which it is traditionally famous worldwide. The proof of the developing cooperation are the 31 M.A. in music diplomas obtained by Korean students in composition, flute, piano, violin and cello playing, as well as solo singing. On the basis of the signed agreement the individual classes with students in Daegu and Warsaw are conducted by the chosen pedagogues from the Academy who are pedagogues from various generations - from a full professor to the assistant.
It is worth to add that Prof. Synn Ilhi never left the educational project "Keimyung - Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music" alone without his personal involvement. He was
always friendly and caring towards Polish pedagogues who were in Korea, he was interested in all the problems of Korean students in Poland, he successfully contributed to overcoming both the factual and organizational difficulties that piled up especially at the beginning. His visits to Poland and the fruitful talks in Daegu served it well.
Activeness of Prof. Synn Ilhi, who was the former Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland in Daegu, President of the Committee of Daegu Music Festivals, President of Keimyung Foundation and Pro Polonia Society, is unusually broad and it serves to establish new values in bilateral relations. Recently, Prof. Synn Ilhi has offered our Academy 9 fellowships for outstanding students of the Academy and for Korean students from the project called Keimyung - F. Chopin Academy of Music. The fellowships amount to Euro 1.500 and are rewarded for five following years starting from 2006. As the initiator of the idea wanted, the fellowships are named after pedagogues and employees of the two Universities, who contributed to the implementation of the above project.
Prof. Dr Synn Ilhi is an outstanding figure, who enjoys general respect and international recognition. For his work he was awarded with an honorary doctorate by universities in the USA (twice), Russia (Saint Petersburg), Taiwan and Japan (twice). He was awarded with the title of an honorary professor by universities in Beijing, Shanghai, as well as in Russia and Uzbekistan. He has numerous Korean, Swedish and American distinctions. In recognition of his great merins in developing Polish-Korean cooperation, on 11th May 2000 Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski honoured Prof. Synn Ilhi with the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. On 5th June 2002 Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, continuing the working visit in the Republic of Korea, visited Keimyung University. He thanked Prof. Synn Ilhi for inviting him to visit the University and in conclusion of his speech se said: My gratitude is even greater due to the fact that Mr Rector is at the same time head of "Pro Polonia Society", a true friend of Poland, advocate of Polish-Korean partnership and cooperation. With friendliness and cordial greetings I turn to all the persons gathered here, who contribute to developing the rapprochement between Poland and Korea.
Your Magnificence,
the High Senate!,
Distinguished Guests,
All the persons gathered here!
Today I can say with satisfaction that the Department of Music Education of our Academy, which is aimed at broad education of talented young people and which also
participated in educating Korean students, including one Keimyung University graduate, knew how to appreciate this enormous passion of working for the benefit of education without borders and divisions of Prof. Synn Ilhi, creator of the international project. I have no doubt that the will of the Senate of the Academy to award the Human and the Pedagogue and at the same time the Promoter of music contacts between people with the highest academic recognition - an honorary doctorate, was right. Work of the Man, who did so much to raise music education in his country to the higher level, deserves the highest respect.
And a few more words about my personal experience. I met President Prof. Dr Synn Ilhi many years ago when I was Prorector for Teaching Affairs. I participated in the first discussions concerning the cooperation and implementation the educational project. Later, as Rector of the Academy I supervised the project in Poland, I sat on classes with Korean students run by our pedagogues in Daegu; and finally, I run the concert of Korean student symphony orchestra in the beautiful Adams Hall. The performers were the soloists - professors: Andrzej Dutkiewicz (pianist, director of the "Keimyung - F.Chopin" project from the FCAM side, Dean of the Department of Piano, Harpsichord and Organ) and Roman Lasocki (violinist, our Prorector for Artistic Affairs). During Prof. Synn Ilhi's visits in Poland, at out Academy, and the last time also in the National Institute of Fryderyk Chopin in Warsaw, as well as during my few visits in the Republic of Korea, I remembered well the figure of our today's
Honorary Doctor. It is impossible not to remember him but it is so hard to fully describe him. Expressive, endearing, admirable, noble and extraordinary personality, unusually modest. I cannot use more lucid words.
In conclusion, I think that Prof. Synn Ilhi in a great way became an inherent part of the history of our Academy which is not only aimed at educating talented Polish young people, but also at widening knowledge and perfecting skills of talented young people from all over the world. A duty of an artist is to share his talent. According to the mission of our Alma Mater, the duty of the Academy is sharing talent "also with societies of other nations of openminded people with wide horizons, aware of what they believe in".
Finally, I can say with confidence that through the action described above, Prof. Synn Ilhi fulfilled the motto of his Nation. At the same time, in my opinion, he fulfilled the desire of our community so that "the talents developed an the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music and the knowledge, skills and experience gained here served the Humankind through its alumni, teachers and workers".
Compiled by: The Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music