Centenary’s Hurley School of Music presents Korean Art Song Festival with visiting artist
SHREVEPORT, LA — Pianist Yeon-Kyung Kim will be in residence at Centenary’s Hurley School of Music this month. Kim will present a lecture on Korean diction on Wednesday, January 24, at 4:00p.m. in Anderson Auditorium and will appear with Hurley students in a joint recital on Friday, January 27, at 7:30 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.
Kim, a native of South Korea, regularly performs as a solo pianist and a chamber musician in venues in Western Illinois and Eastern Iowa; Cincinnati, Ohio; Northern and Southern Indiana; the Detroit Metropolitan area, including Ann Arbor; and Seoul, South Korea. She won first prize in chamber music at the Seoul Art Concours, where she played as an initial member of Quartet Y. She has also presented at masterclasses for John O’Conor, André Watts, Peter Takács, and Warren Jones. Her coaches include Kenneth Griffths, Anne Epperson, and Amy Cheng, to name a few. Kim has served as a rehearsal pianist at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) Opera for two consecutive years and was recently appointed as a staff pianist at Western Illinois University. She is in the final phase of obtaining her Doctor in Musical Arts degree in piano performance at CCM.
An advocate of performing arts and showcasing young artists in their communities, Kim has founded a non-profit organization, Glow Music. In 2022, she presented piano solo pieces by Korean composers to audiences in Cincinnati, and is planning future Glow Music to highlight songs from Eastern languages. Kim has also developed a passion for teaching. She maintained a private studio in Cincinnati and has taught piano group classes and private lessons as a graduate assistant at CCM. Kim has also presented her pedagogy research regionally and nationally at the National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy (Frances Clark Center) and Music Teachers National Association Conference. Most recently, her article on asynchronous teaching video was featured in American Music Teacher, a peer-reviewed journal of MTNA.
During her residency at Hurley, Kim will coach students on Korean music and diction, culminating in the joint recital on January 27.
“In celebration of Lunar New Year, we are thrilled to have Ms. Kim be in residence at Hurley, and share more about her culture and Korean music with us,” said Dr. Janani Sridhar, assistant professor of music at the Hurley School. “There is a wealth of art songs and chamber music by Korean composers that are beginning to be performed more often, and I think this is a wonderful way for our students to be immersed in music from a culture they may not have had much contact with. Our students have had a wonderful time learning to sing in a language they have not sung in before, and are excitedly exploring this new soundscape. I think the audience will enjoy the selection of music that will be performed in the culminating concert, and I'm excited for the students and community to have the chance to experience this incredible canon of music.”