Balsam Guest Artist Series

About the Artist

One of the most sought-after pianists of her generation, South Korean pianist HieYon Choi first gained international recognition after winning prizes at such high-profile competitions as Kapell, Epinal, Busoni and Viotti International. Since then, she has performed with renowned orchestras across Europe, the United States, and Korea. She has also been invited as a soloist at numerous festivals and concert series worldwide. Milestones of Choi’s performing career include complete cycles of Beethoven’s respective piano, violin, and cello sonatas, as well as his piano trios. She has collaborated with esteemed musicians including Truls Mørk, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Peter Stumpf, and Jennifer Koh, among others. A devoted advocate of the new music, she was the inaugural artist-in-residence of Tong-Yeong International Music festival (Korea) and has performed works of a host of modern composers, including Olivier Messiaen, György Kurtag, and Sofia Gubaidulina, among others, for the LA Philharmonic Green Umbrella, Seoul Philharmonic Ars Nova, and Ilshin Prism series, as well as the Seoul International Music Festival. She has also directed contemporary music projects at Seoul National University (SNU). Choi’s recordings include Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas (Decca Korea) as well as releases dedicated to works by Debussy, Liszt, Isang Yun, and Chopin. She has been featured in television and radio broadcasts in Korea, the United States, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, and Germany. In 2023, Choi joined the piano faculty at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University after serving for 24 years as a tenured professor at SNU. Many of her students have gone on to establish successful careers as performers and educators in Korea, Germany, France, and the United States. Choi has given numerous master classes worldwide at an array of prestigious institutions in the United States and across Europe. Winner of all four of Korea’s most prestigious competitions, she went on to study at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Her teachers include Joong-Won Koh, Klaus Hellwig, Hans Leygraf, and György Sebők.