Cameron University’s Lectures and Concerts Series will present CU music professor Dr. Hyunsoon Whang and guest violinist Victoria Stjerna on Oct. 6 as they perform a trio of Johannes Brahms’ sonatas for piano and violin.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the McCutcheon Recital Hall of the Louise D. McMahon Fine Arts Complex, located at the intersection of University and Aggie drives in Lawton.
The concert is free, but reservations (obtained by calling 580-581-2346) are required.
Stjerna and Whang will open with the “Sonata in G Major, Opus 78,” completed by Brahms in 1879. It is often called the “Rain Sonata” because its final movement is a quiet flowing finale weaves in rainy motifs from his earlier works.
The duo will follow it with “Sonata in A Major, Opus 100” composed in 1886. It premiered in Vienna later that year, featuring Brahms himself on piano and Joseph Hellmesberger on the violin. Its three lyrical movements are warm and flowing, with livelier interludes before a graceful finale.
After intermission, the duo will complete their performance with “Sonata in D Minor, Opus 108,” composed by Brahms over a two-year period, 1886-88. Unlike the other compositions presented by Stjerna and Whang, this one has four movements and stands out as Brahms’ final, most tempestuous and dramatically ambitious contribution to the genre.
Brahms is most famous as a master composer and pianist of the Romantic era who bridged classical structures with deep emotional expression.
“Brahms' music is so well written, incredibly beautiful, and never easy to play. It takes a high level of technical proficiency as well as musical maturity,” Whang said.
“It has been on my mind for quite some time to perform all three Brahms sonatas in a single concert, and Victoria immediately came to my mind as the perfect collaborator,” Whang continued. “We have played chamber music together, mainly piano quartets, in the past. I was always impressed with her impeccable musicianship and the passion she conveys through music.
“I am so pleased that CU Lectures and Concerts Series is able to bring this internationally acclaimed violinist to our campus to share her talent and beauty of Brahms' music.”
Victoria Stjerna
Born in Sweden into a Hungarian family with deep musical roots, Stjerna is an award-winning concert violinist, chamber musician, orchestral leader and recording artist whose career spans Europe and the U.S. She has received top prizes at international soloist competitions across Sweden, Denmark and Hungary.
Stjerna studied at the Edsberg Music Institute in Stockholm before completing her artist diploma at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Bergamo-Milan. She continues to combine orchestral leadership, solo and chamber performance, recording, teaching, and artistic collaboration, dividing her time between the U.S. and Sweden while maintaining an active international performing career.
Stjerna is a recipient of the Guido Vecchi Foundation Award and the prestigious Jan Wallander Prize, whose international jury praised her as “a violinist of strong and distinctive musical charisma” with “outstanding technique and a warm tone” and “exceptional artistry.” The prize also provided her with the opportunity to perform on a fine Michele Deconet violin, generously provided on loan through the Swedish foundation Handelsbanken.
Stjerna has appeared as a soloist with symphonies and ensembles and has collaborated with internationally renowned artists. A founding member of the distinguished European chamber orchestra O/Modernt, she has performed at major venues including Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall, as well as alongside leading ensembles such as the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.
An experienced orchestral leader, Stjerna was previously tenured associate concertmaster of the renowned Swedish chamber orchestra Musica Vitae, a conductorless ensemble with which she performed and toured extensively throughout Europe.
Chamber music is central to Stjerna’s artistic career, but her work extends into contemporary and interdisciplinary projects, including the U.S. premiere of the chamber opera “Hilma” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, as well as its Swedish premiere at Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
Stjerna regularly collaborates with living composers and has commissioned and premiered numerous new works, including Klara Stirner’s “Amarena,” written and dedicated specifically for her and Swedish concert pianist Emma Johansson. As a recording artist, Stjerna works across classical, contemporary, jazz, film, video game and soundtrack projects.
Hyunsoon Whang
Korean-American pianist Hyunsoon Whang began her piano studies at age four and has performed in Europe, Canada, Australia, Asia and across most of the U.S.
She studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts, the St. Louis Conservatory, Juilliard, and received a doctorate from Indiana University under the tutelage of a legendary pianist György Sebők. She is on faculty at Cameron University, where she holds the McMahon Endowed Chair in Music.
Equally versatile as a soloist and a chamber musician, Whang has collaborated with noted musicians including Alexis Weissenberg, Leonard Slatkin, Joel Revzen, Miriam Burns, Jon Kalbfleisch, Michael Tree, David Kim, and her cellist sister Pegsoon Whang. Her most recent recording of late Brahms works for solo piano, “Opus 119” and “Clarinet Sonatas, Opus 120” with clarinetist Daniel McKelway, was released in 2024.
A dedicated educator, Whang has taught and nurtured generations of piano students. Her former students are active performers, educators and church musicians the world over. She has given masterclasses in several countries and adjudicated numerous competitions including the final round of the 2016 Music Teachers National Association’s Performance Competition during its 150th national conference in Chicago.
She regularly presents interactive recitals for rural schoolchildren, fostering a love of classical music in the youth. She recently completed performing all of Beethoven’s 32 sonatas and will perform Bach’s Goldberg Variations later this season.
Whang is on the roster of Oklahoma Touring Artist and is a frequent guest artist with Florida Chamber Music Project. She is a recipient of the 2010 Oklahoma Governor’s Arts in Education Award and the 2025 Oklahoma Music Teachers Association’s Distinguished Teacher Award.
During summers she teaches at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. Besides teaching and playing the piano, she enjoys reading, traveling, yoga, and being a supermom to her veterinarian daughter Courtney and Callie, a Pitbull mix rescue.
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