Sun-A Park

Piano, 2018 Serge & Olga Koussevitzky Young Artist Award First Prize Winner

Korean American pianist Sun-A Park is quickly establishing herself as one of the exciting pianists of her generation. Hailed as “incredible” by the great pianist Martha Argerich, Ms. Park has received international recognition in several competitions including first prize at the 2018 Serge and Olga Koussevitzky Young Artists Awards (New York), and prizes at the 5th International Sendai Music Competition (Sendai, 2013), the 58th Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition (Bolzano, 2011), and the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition (Salt Lake City). 

Ms. Park has made appearances at the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation, Steinway Hall (New York), Horowitz Piano Recital Series (New Haven, CT), Bass Recital Hall (Fort Worth, TX), and was a featured soloist with the Yale Philharmonia and Sendai City Orchestra (Japan) performing the Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1. Additional concerto engagements included performances with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Albany Symphony, San Marino Republic Orchestra, Orchester Haydn (Italy), Hannover Hochschulorchester (Germany), and Symphonic Orchestra of Castilla y León (Spain) under the direction of such conductors as Peter Oundjian, Eiji Oue, Arthur Hagen, Krzysztof Urbanski, and Alastair Willis. 

Ms. Park is an enthusiastic recitalist, soloist, and a chamber musician. In recent seasons, she was featured in the Holland Music Sessions’ “Young Masters on Tour” Series, with recitals at major venues in the Netherlands (Het Concertgebouw) and Slovakia (Slovak Philharmonic Hall). As an emerging chamber musician, she formed the piano “Duo Amadeae” with her sister, pianist Esther Park. Together, they have performed in the United States, Germany, and South Korea. They are the winners of First Prize and Director’s Award at the International 2017 Chicago Duo Piano Competition, and frequently give piano duo masterclasses at East Tennessee State University, Smith College, and Yale University. As a period-keyboard music enthusiast, Sun-A has performed in fortepiano masterclasses with fortepianists Alexander Lubimov and Kristian Bezuidenhout at the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments. 

Ms. Park was born in Busan, South Korea, and grew up in New Jersey. She began to play the piano at the age of four and later studied with Seymour Bernstein of New York University. Ms. Park enrolled at The Juilliard School at the age of nine in the Pre-College Division and went on to complete her undergraduate and graduate studies at Juilliard with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Matti Raekallio. In 2014, Ms. Park completed the prestigious Soloklasse Programm in Hannover, Germany, with Bernd Goetzke. She received the Elizabeth Parisot Piano Award for the most outstanding pianist at the Yale School of Music under the tutelage of Boris Berman from 2014-2017. Ms. Park is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree with Boris Slutsky at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Her recording of Clementi Sonatas will be released under the Naxos label in July 2019.