Three years ago, the well known Korean pianist Lee Hsi Ya visited Taiwan. Shao Hsiao Ling, the First lady of Taichung City, visited and accompanied Lee singing The Moon Represents My Heart. When Lee visited Taiwan a second time, the first person she wanted to visit was the first lady. Lee embraced Hsiao when she met the first lady and played the song again. It was similar to the scene when they met for the first time 3 years ago. It was a touching scene.

Miss Lee was invited to hold her recitals in Taiwan. In the news conference for the Taichung City recital on August 14th of 2006, Miss Lee met Hsiao for the first time Hsiao sang a song with Lee’s accompaniment. They worked well together. Hsiao praised Lee’s musical achievements especially because she overcame the barrier of a physical handicap. She said Lee was a role model for everyone.

Lee was flattered by Hsiao‘s compliments. When she heard the news of Hsaio’s car accident on November 18 of 2006, she worried about her condition and was greatly relieved after she heard that Hsiao was well. The Eden Social Welfare Foundation invited her to visited Taiwan again. She asked Eden to arrange a visit with Hsiao and thank for her encouragement.

According to the Eden Social Welfare Foundation, Lee is 25 years old. When she was born, she had only 2 fingers on each hand and no lower legs. At under 100 cm, she has to walk on her thighs. When she was 7 years old, her mother accidentally found that she had a talent for piano when she trained her to strengthen the power of her fingers on the instrument. Lee spent a lot of time practicing piano. Her hard work helped her to become a well known pianist. She was the first prize winner of the Korean Student Music Contest and National Music Contest for the Handicapped. She was also invited to hold recitals overseas.

This time, Lee will hold concerts from Sep. 10 to 13 hosted by Eden. Lee will play with the local blind pianist Hsu Che Cheng. Admission fees will be donated to the Eden Occupational Training Project fund. Eden has been devoted to the service of handicapped individuals for 17 years. They have been working on occupational training and job opportunity matching for the handicapped. They took Lee and Hsu as role models to encourage the handicapped to find stages for their own talents. Donations over NTD 800 will get a free ticket. For more information, please visit the Eden website (http://www.eden.org.tw) or call 02-2230-6685.