About

Sounds of Spring

A concert by Dr. Baekyu Kim, Dr. Soyoung Kwon & Dr. Ji Eun Park performed at the National Opera in NYC April 7th at 7:30pm includes works by Beethoven, tchaikovsky , Schumann and more.
This concert is to celebrate that spring has come! 
Energy that fires up our passion for life and art.

Soyoung Kwon

SoYoung Kwon has appeared in recitals, concerts, festivals and master classes throughout the United States, Germany, France, Netherlands, China, Macau, and Korea. She graduated Sunhwa Arts High School with highest honor, received Bachelor’s degree at Oberlin Conservatory with full scholarship, and she was granted Master’s degree and Artist Diploma with full merit scholarship from Yale University School of Music. Ms. Kwon has completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Boston University, under the guidance of Peter Zazofsky. Her former teachers and coaches include Kyung Sun Lee, Sang Jun Shin, Syoko Aki, Karen Ritscher, Steve Rose, and Ezra Laderman. She has won numerous competitions and awards, including prestigious top prizes from the Korea Daily Competition and Eumyeon Competition in Korea, and was chosen as the 2014 Ujung Rising Star by Ujung Art Center. She has participated and performed in music festivals such as Aspen Music Festival and School, ‘I’academy intenational de musique d’ ete de Nice, Texas Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstien Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Boston University’s summer Tanglewod Institute, Baroque Music Festival, and Great Mountains Music Festival.

Ms. Kwon has worked with Ida Haendel, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Silvia Rosenberg, Lucie Robert, Emanuel Borok, Roberti Diaz, Christoph Eschenbach, John Perry, Lang Lang, Boston String Project and members of Tyoyo, Muir String Quartets. She has been a concertmaster of the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, the Yale Philharmonia and the Boston University Symphony/Chamber Orchestra, as well as a principal first violin of Gunsan Philharmonic Orchestra, a principal second violin of Soliall Philharmonic Orchestra and a leader of New Music New Haven. In addition, she has played with Eastern Connecticut Symphony, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, the Macau Orchestra, Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, the North End Music and Performing Arts Center, and KBS Symphony Orchestra.

A passionate teacher, Ms. Kwon has taught at the Lincoln-Bassett Elementary School in Connecticut, the Pre-College division of Kangnam University, and Sunhwa Arts School in Korea. She performs regularly with the Contemporary Music Ensemble Éclat, Hwaum Boston Orchestra and is a founding member of the Absolute Trio. Ms. Kwon has been appointed as an Adjunct Professor of Violin and Viola at Stonehill College in 2014. Her concert engagements in 2016-2017 season include a solo recital at the Hopkinton Center for Arts, Concert Series with Stonehill Trio, Ensemble K, Duo Aeterna, and Enseble Griot in Korea.

Dr. Ji Eun Park

Soprano Dr. Ji Eun Park was born and grew up in Seoul, South Korea. Ms. Park has received several accolades for her opera performances. Among them they include; the fall 2012 performance of Violetta in the third act of La traviata at the Fringe Festival with the Boston University Opera Institute. “Park’s initially delicate singing accurately depicted Violetta’s physical and mental frailty, but she revealed a clean, well-tempered sound in her passionate duet with Alfredo.”  “Ji Eun Park used her gleaming soprano to penetrating effect as Composer” in Ariadne auf Naxos, and “Ji Eun Park brought warm charisma to the opera’s subversive protagonist, Eliza, and shaped a strong, resolute persona with minimal resources” in Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters.

Recently, she made her debut at Boston Symphony Hall as a soprano soloist of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony conducted by Ken-David Masur. In the summer of 2015 she was a featured artist at Pittsburgh Festival Opera and performed the role of the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro. She has performed numerous roles in opera productions of the Boston University Opera Institute including Violetta (La traviata, act 3), Lidoine (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Miss Wingrave (Owen Wingrave), Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito), Eliza (Dark sisters), and Donna Anna (Don Giovanni). Also, she performed Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos and Beatrice in Beatrice et Benedict while at Cleveland, and Countess in Le nozze di Figaro and First Lady in Magic Flute during her Masters Degree. For concert work she performed the whole work of Handel’s Messiah and Haydn’s The Creation in the Yonsei Concert Choir and was the soprano soloist of Handel’s Dixit Dominus, HWV 232 with Neponset Choral Society.

Ms. Park was a first prizewinner in both the local Metrowest Opera Competition and the Piccola Opera Competition in New Hampshire; 4th prizewinner of the Bel Canto Competition and received the encouragement award from the NEMPAC competition in Boston.

She earned her Bachelors Degree in Voice from Yonsei University in Korea. In the United States she received her Masters Degree in Voice from the Peabody Conservatory studying with Prof. Phyllis Bryn-Julson, and an Artist Diploma in Voice and Opera from the Cleveland Institute of Music studying with Dr. Mary Schiller. Recently, she got her Doctor of Musical Arts in Voice and Opera from Boston University studying with Penelope Bitzas.

Dr. Baekyu Kim

Baekyu Kim, pianist, has impressed audiences worldwide with his unique artistry, a blend of commanding technique and gentle musicality.  Praised by the Journal News for his “soulful expression,” he has been invited to perform in chamber recitals and at numerous festivals throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.  In 2002 Dr. Kim received the designated honor of “Young Artist” for solo piano from the Korean Music Journal, and in 2008 he won the Honors Competition at Boston University.  After winning the “Special Presentation Award” from the Artists International Competition, also in 2008, he made his successful Carnegie Hall debut in 2009, performing a program that included the world premiere of “Lutine” by American composer Richard Cornell.  In addition to Weill Recital Hall in 2016, he has also performed at Salle Cortot in Paris, Lille, and Strasburg in France, Freiburg and karlsruhe in Germany, the Sejong Art Center and YoungSan Art Center in Seoul, Kangwon University and the Mozart Hall in Korea.  Currently based in Boston, Massachusetts, Dr. Kim has performed at numerous venues along the American East Coast, including at local concert series in Boston such as the Kleshinsky, Park Avenue Congregational Church, St. Johns Bowdoin St. and Jamaica Plain, as well as performances at the Tanglewood Music Center, Southern New Hampshire University, the Purchase Piano Festival, and in the Dancer in Mocomoco project in New York City.

Dr. Kim earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Chung-ang University, and continued his studies in France at the Ecole Normal de Musique de Paris, where he studied with Micael Wladkowski.  He later earned the diploma, diploma superieur and the perfectionnement diploma from the Conservatoire National de Versailles, studying with Edda Erlendsdottir.  Relocating to the United States, Dr. Kim earned his Master’s Degree at SUNY Purchase, studying with Stephanie Brown, and later his Doctoral Degree at Boston University, where he studied with the late Maria Clodes and Gila Goldstein.