My parents gave me the name Elisa, in honor of Beethoven's "For Elise", which my mother loved very much, as an Italian twist on my half-Sicilian origins. I started taking piano lessons at the age of 6, strongly encouraged by my Korean mother, who, despite being exhausted after her work shift as a nurse, took me to piano lessons while catching up on her sleep in the next room of the piano room. My teacher, who recognized talent in me, let me perform publicly in the cityhall Göppingen as a 7-year-old girl after just one year of teaching.