Soohyun Yun

SOOHYUN YUN
Teachers Program

Country: South Korea
Position: Associate Professor and Director of Keyboard Programs, Charleston Southern University, South Carolina
Concerto: Mozart Concerto No. 19 in F major, KV 459 (I. Allegro)

Pianist, Soohyun Yun, born in Korea, has explored solo and chamber music from baroque to contemporary and performed in venues throughout Asia, Europe, and the US.

In summer 2019, she performed with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra as winning the Piano Texas Festival’s Concerto Competition. She won first prize at the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition and was invited to perform at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall in New York in 2016. It was her third performance in the same hall; her first performance was after winning the Artist International’s Special Presentation Award in 2008, and her second performance was after winning first prize in the American Protégé International Competition in 2009. In addition, she was awarded the Most Distinguished Musician Award and the Kapustin Award at the 2016 IBLA International Music Competition in Italy.

Yun has collaborated with various renowned artists including members of the Atlanta Symphony and Charleston Symphony in small-and large-ensemble settings. Yun is a founding member of piano ensemble, the Pianissimo, whose active membership has expanded to include more than 100 pianists in Korea. Along with covering standard piano concert repertoire, she has explored repertoire for the organ, harpsichord, and fortepiano, and she has performed in a variety of contemporary settings. In particular, her enthusiasm for contemporary music led her to play a solo, “Cloches d’adieu, et un sourire” in memoriam of Olivier Messiaen, by Tristan Murail, in the composer’s presence.

Over the last several years, Yun has been invited to be a solo artist at venues that have included the Summer Season of Music of Nations in Rome, Italy; the Montpelier Art Center Recital Series in Maryland; McCall’s Free Community Recital Series in Idaho; and the Jewish Educational Alliance Speakers Series in Savannah, GA. She also has performed solo and chamber programs in such prestigious halls as Gewandhaus Concert Hall in Leipzig Germany; Sejong Art Center, Kumho Art Hall, Yonsei-Kumho Hall, Youngsan Art Hall, and Youngsan-Yangjae Art Hall in Seoul, Korea; Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall in New York; and Spivey Hall in GA.

As an active clinician, adjudicator, presenter and writer, Yun has appeared in numerous venues, including the World Piano Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia; Korean piano pedagogy conferences; and MTNA national conferences.

Yun received DMA and MM in Piano Performance under Ian Hobson and MM in Piano Pedagogy under Reid Alexander from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and BM from Yonsei University, Korea. Yun extended her summer studies at International Keyboard Festival and Institution, NY, PianoTexas International Festival & Academy, and at Hochschule “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig, Germany. She has been coached by world-renowned artists including Olga Kern, Pascal Rogé, Barry Douglas, Bernd Goetzke, Alexander Kobrin, and Joaquin Achucarro among numerous others.

Yun taught at Radford University in VA, Kennesaw State University in GA, University of Idaho at Moscow, Millikin University in IL, and coordinated Piano Laboratory Program at University of Illinois. Currently, she teaches studio and group piano, small chamber, piano literature and pedagogy at Charleston Southern University, SC where she serves as Associate Professor and Director of Keyboard Programs.