Pianist _ Jongwha Park

Jonghwa Park is a concert pianist and professor. Born in Korea, he began playing piano at age four. In his youth, he studied at the Preparatory School of Tokyo Music College in Japan and the Preparatory School of New England Conservatory in the U.S. In 1992, Park followed the great artistry of legendary pianist Russell Sherman at the New England Conservatory in Boston, followed Bashkirov to Spain, where he obtained the prestigious Artist Diploma in Escuela de Musica Reina Sofia, Madrid, and enrolled in the distinguished Meister Podium program at the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater in Munich in 2003.

Park has appeared in renowned concert halls including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Herculas saal in Munich, and the Palais de Beaux in Belgium. His prolific international career as a pianist allowed him to debut with some of the world’s highly acclaimed orchestras including the Dresden Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Symphony, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Park has achieved many accolades throughout his career. He won several first prizes at national competitions in Korea, Japan, and the U.S. including winning the Mainichi Shinbun Music Competition in Japan at age 12. Internationally, Park is a recipient of a number of awards including a Critic’s Prize in the Queen Elizabeth International Piano Competition in 1995, second prize and the public prize from the Santander International Piano Competition in 1998, and a special prize from the Rubinstein International Competition. Park is also a laureate of the Ferrucio Busoni International Piano Competition.

As a socially conscious and conscientious artist, he firmly believes that music is to be shared beyond concertgoers. He is committed to realizing this belief through projects such as ‘Run Piano’ in the capacity of an artistic director delivering live music to disadvantaged communities and individuals.

In 2012, his debut recording of Rachmaninoff and Mussorgsky with Sony Classical. His second album ‘NUNAYA’, Korean Children’s Songs arranged as piano pieces were released with Universal Music in 2015 and also completed a widely praised NUNAYA Korea tour that launched at LG Arts Center in Seoul.