Chaeyoung Park
Piano
Chaeyoung Park has been praised as a passionate pianist who “does not play a single note without thought or feeling.” (New York Concert Review). Embracing a broad range of the classical music literature, her programs feature works ranging from the early French Baroque by Rameau, to Beethoven sonatas, to new music by living composers including South Korean classical composer, Unsuk Chin. Through Park’s various roles as a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist, she has performed at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Bravo! Vail Music Festival, Tongyeong International Music Festival, Ravinia’s Bennett Gordon Hall, Symphony Center’s Orchestra Hall, as well as live-streamed concerts presented by the Gilmore Rising Stars series, the Carlsen Center, and the Lied Center of Kansas virtual series during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As winner of the 2019 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, Park is the first female Korean pianist to receive First Place in the history of the competition. She subsequently presented her solo recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall and performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra under the baton of John Morris Russell. Her debut album on the Steinway label (to be released in soon), highlights diverse aspects of her artistry and her commitment to sharing hidden gems of the piano repertoire. It features the complete set of Musica Ricercata by Ligeti, as well as the more traditional, beloved masterpiece, Piano Sonata No. 3 by Brahms.
An avid chamber musician, Park participated in Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Yellow Barn, Four Seasons Winter Workshop, Kneisel Hall, Juilliard ChamberFest, and YoungArts Week, which awarded her the prestigious Gold Medal in Music. While working under renowned artists such as Leon Fleisher, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffman and Robert Levin, she has collaborated with the most promising young artists of her generation. Her lasting relationships with festival colleagues resulted in regular chamber music performances for audiences around the country. She was featured at the Greene Space at WNYC/WQXR, Harvard Club in New York City, and First Congregational United Church of Christ in Sarasota. When COVID-19 made in-person collaborations difficult, Park produced multiple online layering projects through phone and Zoom rehearsals to keep her love of chamber music alive.
At age 14, Park had her first concerto engagement with the Heritage Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of James Murray. She went on to perform with all major orchestras in Kansas, including the Kansas City Symphony with Michael Stern, Topeka Symphony Orchestra with Robert Olson, Fort Hays Symphony Orchestra with Ben Cline, Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City with Travis Jürgens, Metropolitan Youth Orchestra with James Murray and Kansas Sinfonietta with David Neely. She now regularly performs with orchestras around the U.S., including the Juilliard chamber orchestra (which she conducted from the keyboard while performing the second movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12), as well as the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra with Neil Varon, Utah Symphony Orchestra with Rei Hotoda, New Millennium Symphony with Francesco Milioto, Canton Symphony Orchestra with Gerhardt Zimmermann, Lake Forest Symphony with Vladimir Kulenovic and Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra with John Morris Russell.
Introduced to the piano in her kindergarten music class, Park immediately showed a love for music, which was deepened by her grandmother’s gift of a Yamaha upright piano. Once she won her first local competition at age eight, Park’s musical studies became serious. She immigrated to the U.S. at age ten to study with Jack Winerock, to whom she credits much of her musical upbringing, having studied with him for eight years.
She won her first international competition at age 13: The 2012 International Institute for Young Musicians International Piano Competition, and was delighted to also win the vote for Audience Prize. Within a month, she became the youngest finalist of the 2012 Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competition. Over her years of study with Winerock, she was a top prizewinner in the 2014 Emilio Del Rosario International Piano Concerto Competition, the 2015 Cleveland International Young Artists Competition, the 2015 Yamaha USASU International Senior Piano Competition, and the 2016 Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Competition.
While pursuing the Bachelor of Music degree at the Juilliard School, Park was awarded the Juilliard Gina Bachauer Scholarship, which offers a year of full-tuition scholarship. For her Master of Music degree, she was named a Kovner Fellow, a prestigious merit-based fellowship covering tuition and living expenses for outstanding music students who demonstrate potential for leadership in the field and was awarded the Arthur Rubinstein Prize, given to one outstanding graduating pianist, at the conclusion of her degree. Currently, she is an Artist Diploma candidate under the tutelage of Robert McDonald, who has shaped and inspired the artist she is today.
South Korean-born, and raised in Lawrence, Kansas, since age ten, Park returns to Kansas frequently to share music with her community whenever she is back home from New York City, where she is currently based. First Prize winner of the 2022 Susan Wadsworth Young Concert Artists International Auditions, she is managed worldwide by Young Concert Artists.