Dr. Sun-A Park
Guest Masterclass; Assistant Professor of Piano, Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music
Acclaimed for her “exquisite clarity” and “remarkable virtuosity,” Korean-American pianist Sun-A Park is establishing herself as one of the most exciting artists of her generation. Since making her orchestral debut with the New Jersey and Houston Symphony Orchestras, Park has appeared in major concert halls across the globe, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Juilliard Theater in New York, Steinmetz Hall in Orlando, the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and the Manuel de Falla Auditorium in Spain.
As a sought-after soloist and recitalist, she has collaborated with conductors such as Peter Oundjian, Eiji Oue, Arthur Hagen, and Krzysztof Urbański, and performed with orchestras including the Yale Philharmonia, Albany Symphony, Sendai City Orchestra (Japan), Orchester Haydn (Italy), Hannover Hochschulorchester (Germany), San Marino Republic Orchestra, and the Symphonic Orchestras of Castilla y León and Ciudad de Granada (Spain). She has been featured in prominent recital series throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, including the Horowitz Recital Series at Yale University, the Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut in Germany, and the Seoul Performing Arts Center in South Korea.
A prizewinner of numerous international competitions, Park received first prizes at the Olga and Serge Koussevitzky Young Artists Awards and the Kosciuszko Chopin Competition. She was awarded second prize and the Rosa Sabater Prize for best interpretation of Spanish music at the 2019 Jaén International Piano Competition in Spain. Additional accolades include major prizes at the 5th International Sendai Music Competition (Japan), the 58th Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition (Italy), and the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition (USA).
Passionate about historical performance, Park has explored fortepiano through masterclasses with Alexander Lubimov and Kristian Bezuidenhout at the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments. She has appeared on fortepiano at the Virtuoso e Belcanto Festival in Lucca, Italy, and the Peabody Institute, where her research focused on the development of keyboard technique in the 18th-century English fortepiano tradition. Her recording of early keyboard sonatas by Muzio Clementi was released on the Naxos label in 2019.
Born in Busan, South Korea, and raised in New Jersey, Sun-A Park began piano studies at the age of four and later studied with Seymour Bernstein. She earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Juilliard School under Yoheved Kaplinsky and Matti Raekallio, and completed the prestigious Soloklasse program in Hannover, Germany, under the mentorship of Bernd Goetzke. At the Yale School of Music, she studied with Boris Berman and was awarded the Elizabeth Parisot Piano Award for most outstanding pianist. She currently serves as Assistant Professor of Piano at Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music and was previously Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida.
