IN Recital - Hieyon Choi, Piano

Praised for her clarity, depth, and interpretive insight, HieYon Choi is one of the most sought-after pianists of her generation. She first gained international recognition as a prizewinner at major competitions including the Kapell, Épinal, Busoni, and Viotti. Since then, she has appeared with leading orchestras across Europe, the United States, and Korea, among them the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.), Rundfunkorchester Berlin, Berlin Symphoniker, Northern Sinfonia, Seoul Philharmonic, Korean Broadcast Symphony, Busan Philharmonic, Incheon Philharmonic, Philharmonie du Lorraine, Lausanne Chamber, and Korea Chamber. Her collaborators at the podium have included Jesús López Cobos, Dmitri Kitajenko, Markus Stenz, Pascal Rophé, Roland Kluttig, Kwame Ryan, and Thomas Zehetmair, as well as leading Korean conductors. She has also appeared at international festivals and series such as Schleswig-Holstein, Tongyeong, Seoul International, Ernen Musikdorf, Schloss Bourglinster, Vevey, Assisi, Sierre, Dame Myra Hess, Kumho Art Hall, and Sungnam Matinee.

A defining milestone of Choi’s career was her four-year cycle of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas at Kumho Art Hall in Seoul, performed to sold-out audiences. The project earned her the 2003 Nanpa Music Award and the 2005 Arts Award of the Year from Arts Council Korea. Subsequent cycles at Kumho Art Hall featured Beethoven’s piano trios, violin sonatas, and cello works. A second complete sonata cycle, spanning Korea, Germany, Sweden, Croatia, and the United States, concluded in 2018, establishing Choi among the few pianists worldwide to have performed multiple Beethoven cycles. Beyond Beethoven, she has curated series devoted to Brahms and his circle as well as the French school, and has partnered with distinguished artists including Truls Mørk, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Jennifer Koh, Soovin Kim, Ulf Wallin, Mikyung Lee, Peter Stumpf, and Stephan Dohr.

Equally committed to modern and contemporary repertoire, Choi was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence of the Tongyeong International Music Festival, one of Asia’s most influential platforms for new music. Her repertoire embraces works by Messiaen, Kurtág, Gubaidulina, Eötvös, and Unsuk Chin. She has performed in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series, Seoul Philharmonic’s Ars Nova, the Seoul International Music Festival, and the Ilshin Prism Series, while at Seoul National University she spearheaded contemporary music projects that expanded the scope of performance and education in Korea.

From 2015 to 2023, Choi recorded the complete Beethoven piano sonatas at Teldex Studio Berlin with producer Martin Sauer and piano technician Thomas Hübsch. Released worldwide on Decca Korea/UMG in 2025, this monumental cycle has drawn international acclaim. Piano News praised her “magnificent sense of sound” and natural pacing that avoids exaggeration while sustaining expressive intensity. Gramophone highlighted her “scurrying brio and harmonic awareness” in the early sonatas and singled out her finale of Op. 10 No. 1 as “one of this sonata’s greatest-ever recorded interpretations.” Her earlier Decca release (2018), featuring Sonatas Nos. 18, 26, 27, and 30, received wide recognition in Germany and Korea. Her broader discography includes Debussy’s Douze Études, Liszt’s Six Grandes Études dePaganini, Isang Yun’s 5 Stücke, and Chopin’s complete Études Op. 10 & 25, with performances broadcast in Korea, the United States, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, and Germany.

An influential pedagogue, Choi joined the faculty of Seoul National University in 1999 as one of its youngest professors, teaching there for 24 years and guiding generations of pianists who now pursue distinguished careers. Since 2023 she has been Professor of Piano at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, continuing her commitment to teaching and mentoring in the United States. She has given masterclasses at leading institutions including the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the Sibelius Academy, and major conservatories in Paris, Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Düsseldorf, Bremen, New York, Boston, Cincinnati, Michigan, and Hong Kong. Festival residencies include Bowdoin, Rebecca Penneys, and Bay International, where she has combined recitals, chamber music, and teaching. She is also in demand as a juror, having served on the panels of the Busoni (Bolzano), Beethoven (Vienna), Maj Lind (Helsinki), Pozzoli (Italy), Épinal and Orléans competitions (France).

Born in Incheon, South Korea, Choi made her concerto debut at the age of six with the Incheon Philharmonic. Early studies with Joong-Won Koh led to victories in all four of Korea’s major national competitions (Dong-A, JoongAng, Korea Times, Ewha-KyungHyang). At 18 she moved to Germany to study with Klaus Hellwig and Hans Leygraf at the Berlin University of the Arts, later working with György Sebők at Indiana University and benefiting from collaborations with Thomas Zehetmair, Karl Leister, and János Starker.