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Biography
Born in Seoul, Korea, Hyunsoon Whang came to the United States in 1978 and joined the Music Department of Cameron University in January 1993. She teaches Private Piano and Accompanying, and has taught Music Literature and Class Piano. She is a student friendly professor who believes in a hands-on, personalized learning environment. Her students are constantly challenged to push new limits, be open minded, and be creative. Her piano students have received scholarships to the Aspen Music School and New England Conservatory, and have won various competitions including the Oklahoma State level of the Music Teachers National Association's Performance Competition for the High School and College level. She founded the Cameron University Piano Competition for High School Students which will be held in February 2009 for the sixteenth consecutive year. She serves as a faculty advisor for Cameron University's Asian Club which was founded under her guidance in 2001. Her honors include the Lawton Arts and Humanities Council's "Artist of the Year," induction into the Cameron University Alumni Association’s Faculty Hall of Fame, Cleveland Earth Day Coalition's "Entertainer of the Year," and a multiple listing in Who's Who Among American Teachers. Whang was named the Louise D. McMahon Endowed Chair in Music in 2006.
As a pianist, Whang began her piano studies at the age of four and started playing public concerts at age twelve. Since then she has delighted audiences in more than 450 concerts across the United States, Europe, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Japan, and Korea. She is a versatile pianist who enjoys performing solo recitals, concertos with orchestra and chamber music concerts. She has appeared as a soloist with noted conductors Leonard Slatkin, Joel Revzen, Miriam Burns and the late Nicholas Harsanyi. As a recitalist and a collaborator she has performed at Paul Hall in Lincoln Center, the Ordway Theater in St. Paul, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and Se-Jong Cultural Center in Seoul. She has participated in the Aspen Music Festival, Ravinia Festival Master Classes, Canada’s Victoria Music Festival and the Taos School of Music. With her pianist husband Thomas Labé, she performed as a two piano duo in Germany and France to critical acclaim and recorded Alexis Weissenberg's surrealistic musical Nostalgie on the Arkadia label in Montpellier, France. Critics have praised Whang as "the kind of player who appears to immerse her entire being in the music," and as one who has "always delivered with grace and beauty." Her engagement last season have included an appearance with the Lawton Philharmonic Orchestra and a solo recital in Seoul. During the 2008-09 season, she will perform several solo recitals, chamber music concerts with members of the Cleveland Orchestra and the Miami String Quartet, and record a video session to be aired on television in Missouri. She recently was chosen to serve on the Oklahoma Arts Council's Touring Artists Roster, becoming the only solo classical pianist represented on that roster.
Whang studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts, the St. Louis Conservatory of Music, The Juilliard School, and holds a doctorate from Indiana University School of Music. Her piano teachers have included Gyorgy Sebok, Michele Bloch, Joseph Kalichstein, Clifton Matthews, Jung-joo Oh, Jung-kyu Kim and Soo-jung Shin, and she has studied the harpsichord with Maryse Carlin and chamber music with Michael Tree and Felix Galimir. Hyunsoon lives near Lawton overlooking Mt. Scott and Lake Lawtonka with her husband Thomas, their daughter Courtney, and two rambunctious dogs. Besides piano, she enjoys traveling and yoga.
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