Mike Cheng-Yu Lee, a graduate student in the field of music at Cornell, placed second in a hard-fought competition on the fortepiano that brought musicians from all over the world to Ithaca.

The Westfield International Fortepiano Competition victory was particularly sweet because Lee suffers from focal dystonia, a neurological movement disorder that affects his hand. If not for the flexibility of Cornell's graduate program in music, Lee would have had to give up his piano studies in his quest to pursue an academic degree.

It had happened to him before. Lee was forced to leave his first graduate program, at Yale University, because the dystonia prevented him from pursuing his performance degree. But his hand improved, so Lee enrolled in Cornell's historical performance D.M.A. (doctor of musical arts) program, drawn by the artistry of Malcolm Bilson, the Frederick J. Whiton Professor of Music Emeritus.

But the dystonia symptoms returned, and pursuing a performance degree again became impossible. Instead of having to give up his graduate studies as he did at Yale, though, Cornell's combination of performance and academics allowed Lee to switch to the Ph.D. program and study music theory under James Webster, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Music -- while continuing to learn piano with Bilson.

"Many places would say you're a musicologist, stay out of the practice room!" says Bilson. "But our musicology faculty has always valued performance. We think it's the kind of thing this department excels at."

Lee concurs, expressing gratitude for the unique flexibility of Cornell's music program. "Cornell's been fantastic to me," he says. "It allowed me the space to recover. At any other program I wouldn't have been able to be in academia and do performance at the same time."

Bilson calls Lee an "outstanding" student, and he points out that "some people think you can't get better from dystonia, which is what makes Mike so remarkable. He read about a Chinese pianist [Hung-Kuan Chen] who took three years off and retrained his hands, and Mike then did it in less than a year."

Although Lee has performed in concert venues in the United States, New Zealand and Taiwan as well as at the Sarasota, Kneisel Hall and the Cliburn Institute festivals, he had not competed since age 16. He says he found it challenging to make music in an artistic way in a competition setting. But for him, entering the Fortepiano Competition wasn't about winning: He wanted the chance to get feedback from the distinguished panel of international judges (none of whom were from Cornell).

In expressing his artistic vision, Lee made a risky choice for his final piece, playing J.S. Bach on the Mozart period fortepiano.

"He was the only performer who played something so controversial," says Bilson. "Bach is generally reserved for the harpsichord. Some people think playing Bach on an [18th-century] fortepiano should never be done, and some think it's the wave of the future."

In the end, Lee not only impressed the judges, he also won the hearts of the competition's audience. A la "American Idol," the audience voted to award him the $1,000 Herbert J. Carlin Audience Prize, sponsored by former Ithaca resident Mariann Carlin.

Linda B. Glaser is a staff writer for the College of Arts and Sciences.