Only The Sound Of Strings

BSO cellist Chang Woo Lee finds sanctuary—and great acoustics—in her quiet, forested home.

- Rebecca Kirkman

“I TELL YOU, IT was totally liberating,” says Chang Woo Lee.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra associate principal cellist is talking about her move from a 6,026-square-foot house in Guilford to this much smaller 1,613-square-foot home in rural Glenwood in Howard County.

Although Lee describes the downsizing as a major undertaking—she and husband Kirk Laughton sold and donated a majority of their possessions, including a collection of Korean and Japanese antique furniture—she found it surprisingly easy to pare down their belongings to the essentials. “I’m not a sentimental person,” says Lee. “I can be very practical. I say, ‘These are things. I don’t have to keep everything.’”

Though her Guilford home had offered a quick 10-minute trip to the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where Lee rehearses and performs with the symphony five to six days a week, the couple was ready for a change of pace. “We’re at that point in our lives where we need a bit of scenery and we really want somewhere quiet,” she says. Despite more than quadrupling her commute, Lee says the move in 2012 was worth it. “When I practice, I can make all the noise I want and I don’t have to worry about my neighbors.”

Both artists (Laughton was a professional musician himself before founding a lighting-design business more than 25 years ago), the couple searched for a unique home where they could express their creativity. Laughton recalls his wife’s lighthearted ultimatum with a smile: “Don’t put her in a house without some character or it’d be the end of our marriage.”