Ji-Hyang Gwak

Country – Republic of Korea
Age – 30

A prizewinner at numerous competitions, pianist Ji-Hyang Gwak has garnered international praise for her versatility, energy, and technical mastery. As a performing solo artist, chamber musician, and pedagogue, she has made appearances across the United States, in the Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, and Korea.

Gwak is the top prize winner of the Sicily International Piano Competition, Seattle International Piano Competition, Franz Liszt International Piano Competition, the MFMC Rosamond P. Haeberle Memorial Piano Award, the High Point University Piano Competition, and the Michigan MTNA Young Artist Competition.  Her most recent achievement was in the 2021 Lyon International Music Competition in France, where she won third prize and received concert engagements from the Association Frédéric Chopin à Lyon.

She made her orchestral debut when she was 15 with the Bucheon Chamber Orchestra at Jancheon Art Hall in Seoul. In 2014, she won the Eastman School of Music Concerto Competition where she performed Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Eastman Philharmonia at Kodak Hall. Ji-Hyang also played Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra at Hill Auditorium in 2019.

Ji-Hyang holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance, summa cum laude, from Seoul National University and a Master of Music in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music. Her teachers include Kyungrok Park, Jinson Kim, Professor Hie-Yon Choi, and Professor Natalya Antonova. She is currently pursuing a Specialist degree at the University of Michigan under the tutelage of Professor Christopher Harding, where she earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2020.

Repertoire

Round I

Beethoven                Sonata No. 3 in C major, Op. 2

Round II

Vine                            Sonata No. 1

Bach                           Ricercar a 3 from Das Musikalisches Opfer, BWV 1079

Liszt                            Les jeux d’eaux à la villa d’Este from Années de pèlerinage, S. 163

Round III  

Haydn                        Sonata No. 53 in E minor, Hob. XVI/34

Ravel                          Miroirs

Scriabin                     Preludes Nos. 1, 4 ,6, 11 and 14, Op. 11

Round IV

Rachmaninoff          Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30