Elaine Kwon: Music Bio

 

 

CONCERT PIANIST

EDUCATION:

DMA, Doctorate of Musical Arts in piano performance, Boston University
MM, Master of Music in piano performance, highest honors and Distinction in Performance Award, New England Conservatory of Music
BM, Bachelor of Music in piano performance, highest honors and Academic All-American Award, University of Texas at Austin

Prize-winning pianist Elaine Kwon made her orchestral debut with the Washington-Idaho Symphony at age 15 and has performed solo, concerto, and chamber music concerts throughout the US and internationally. She received standing ovations at her sold-out, 2008 Carnegie Hall debut concert in Weill Recital Hall as well as in her 2010 solo concerto appearance with the Slovak Sinfonietta, the 2009/2010 season opening concerts as soloist with the Toronto Philharmonia Orchestra and the Finger Lakes Symphony, and most recently with the New York Chamber Virtuosi at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. For 10 years she toured regularly as part of the Hebert/Kwon piano duo and has appeared on public television and radio in the US, China and Bulgaria. She was a Visiting Professor of Piano at the Conservatory of Music in Wuhan, People's Republic of China and performed duo piano concerts (with pianist Sandra Hebert) and taught master classes at the music conservatories in Wuhan, Chengdu and Tianjin. As collaborative musician, she has performed/composed/choreographed productions of piano music combined with other art forms. Performances in New York include presentations at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center Rose Studio, Angel Orensanz Theater, Tenri Cultural Institute, ICO Gallery, Yamaha Piano Salon and the Knitting Factory. As a composer, she has written primarily solo piano works. She created an original score for the highly-acclaimed Shakespearean play, Corsetless, which premiered in Buffalo, NY, was showcased in Carnegie Hall, toured through Ireland in 2009 and is now being made into a feature film. Elaine is co-founder of the recital series, Savor Your Senses, which officially launched in 2011.

Her recording of Rubinstein's Piano Concerto no. 4 in D Minor with the Slovak Sinfonietta, conductor Kerry Stratton, will be released on Artist's Choice Recordings in August 2011.

Elaine is an Affiliated Artist/Lecturer in the Music Department at MIT where she teaches music theory and piano lab.