Profile: Yong-Hee Silver, Major Gifts Officer Boston Symphony Orchestra

1. What does success mean to you?
   Success means one is able to do what one wants to do at the highest level. 
     
2. What motivates you to do your best work?
   Seeing the results of one's labor making a difference where you care the most. 
     
   
3. What attracted you to your current position?
   My familiarity with the BSO leadership donor base. 
     
4. What was a defining moment in your life?
   While I was studying music theory and solfège, I repeatedly realized the limits of learning through one's mind - sheer will power and hard work were not sufficient to absorb the material. 
     
5. What book are you currently reading?
   Howard Gardner's “Changing”. 
     
6. What’s your guilty pleasure?
   Being lost to a book for days on end - only eating and sleeping minimally. 
     
7. What is your greatest personal challenge when connecting with new donors?
   There is only excitement at the beginning... challenge is maintaining the exuberance of the first moment of meeting. 
     
8. Would you rather be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond?
   I want to be a big fish in a big pond because I have been both of the above and have not liked it. 
     
9. If you won the Mega millions jackpot tomorrow how would you spend it?
   By giving it all away philanthropically - so that 1) any child interested in music can study and 2) bring music education back to schools of all levels. 
     
10. What’s the worst job you ever had? What’s the best?
    There is always a silver lining to every job. I have never hated a job, only parts of a job. What I am doing now is one of the best jobs I have had. 
      
11. What motivates you?
    Sitting in Symphony Hall during a musician's practice time (alone on the stage) never fails to move me and make me remember what it takes to become a musician. Their struggle feeds my ambition to do my best at my job. 
      
12. What scares you?
    That the world economy will collapse completely in the near future. 
      
13. What is your greatest personal accomplishment?
    That I at mid-life was able to study at a conservatory like a regular music student! 
      
14. What is your passion outside of work?
    Sharing my children's lives and cooking. My family. 
      
15. If you had a time machine what time period would you go to and why?
    The 19th century was a time of great Romantic writers, musicians and political philosophers - I am especially fond of Chopin. 
      
16. Can you swim?
    Ah, what a great sport - actually a way of being. There are so many ways to swim, and all of the methods represent a profound philosophy. 
      
17. Married? Single? Looking?
    Married. I cannot imagine life as single! Especially without children. Raising children is the greatest privilege a human can have. 
      
18. What’s your favorite color?
    No one color.  Color, like musical notes, is defined when seen in a relationship. Colors fluctuate in my esteem depending on the relationship. 
      
19. Who’s the coolest person you know?
    My husband is the most maddening, "coolest person" I know. Anyone who can make me laugh a fresh laugh everyday is cool. 
      
20. What can you say about your organization that would convince someone to donate?
    Symphony Hall is a place where one can transform one's moods, knowledge and spirit. It is an oasis that must not be allowed to go dry!