Sohyun Ahn

Piano

Primary Academic Program: Bard Conservatory of Music: Preparatory Division

Biography: With live performances broadcast by WFMT (Chicago’s Classical Radio Station), LCATV( Lake Champlain Access Television), EBS (Korean Educational Broadcast TV Station), pianist Sohyun Ahn was named the Best Performer of the Year by Eumak-Chunchu, South Korea’s leading classical music journal. She has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, at venues including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and Merkin Hall, An Die Musik in Baltimore, Bates Recital Hall at the University of Texas at Austin, Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert at Chicago Cultural Center, Allegro Music Consultants Concert Series in Philadelphia, Dallas Mu Phi Epsilon Public Library Concert Series, and the Island Arts Center Concert Series in Vermont. Her performances include appearances with the Queensboro Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Baroque Orchestra, Royal Scottish Academy Orchestra, the Korean Symphony Orchestra, the Seoul Tutti Orchestra, and the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra. She has been invited to perform at Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert in Chicago, the W. Kempff Beethoven Course in Positano Italy, and the Ferrara International Music Festival Concert Series. She was also a guest soloist at the concert honoring the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth at the Sejong Art Center in Korea. As a collaborative pianist, she has performed with musicians of the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and New York City Ballet and more.

Her recordings of the Bach Goldberg Variations (Sonoris) and Mozart Sonatas (Classic Art) earned critics’ attention. New York Concert Review wrote of her Bach, “balanced and rational”, and of her Mozart, “a perfectly balanced, crystalline performance.” She gave the complete Mozart Piano Sonata Concert Series at St. John’s in the Village,New York City in 2019.

A passionate advocate and educator of music, she has taught at the Concordia College in New York and Rutgers, New Jersey State University, the University of Texas at Austin, and was a director at the Geneva Conservatory of Music, NYC. She also gave master classes at University of Malaya, University of College Sedaya International, Universiti Punta Malaysia, Glovil Conservatory in Korea, and Trinity College Board in Malaysia. Sohyun also has served as an adjudicator for the New York Laureate International Music Competition, Westchester Musicians Guild Young Artists Auditions, Greater Princeton Steinway Society Scholarship Competition, and the Third Street Music School Program. She was a recipient of the Teachers’ Enrichment Grant by Music Teachers National Association.

Sohyun holds the Doctor of Musical Arts from Rutgers University, the Professional Studies Degree from the Manhattan School of Music, and Masters of Music in Piano Performance with distinction from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Tokyo Geidai Academy. Her Bachelor of Music was from Yonsei University (Seoul, Korea) where she received the president award. Since 2017 she has been dedicated to organizing concerts for Riverside Rehabilitation Center, New Jewish Home, Upper East Side Rehabilitation Center, Amsterdam Nursing Home, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, New York Presbyterian Hospital, and Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. Currently Sohyun is a classical music coordinator at the Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in NYC and a faculty at the Bard College Conservatory Preparatory Division, University of Mount Saint Vincent and the Lucy Moses School at the Kaufman Music Center, NYC.
Department: Arts