Concerto Competition: 2009

Winner:

Sahun Hong

Second Prize:

Josué González

Sahun Hong

Sahun Hong has continued his success at the piano, amongst his many activities. He is one of 28 Young Steinway Artists worldwide, and the first and only Young Steinway Artist in Texas.

Sahun Hong was born in 1994 in Seoul, Korea, and has studied piano since the age of four. At the age of 16, he graduated Magna Cum Laude from Texas Christian University with a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance. He is currently a student at The Peabody School, and has played in master classes for Leon Fleisher, Paul Badura-Skoda, Stephen Hough, and Nelita True. Since the age of nine, Sahun has given 47 performances in Fort Worth through the Van Cliburn Foundation’s “Musical Awakenings” program.

Sahun is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes, including First Prize in the 2012 New York International Piano Competition, FIrst Prize in the PianoArts North American Piano Comptition (2012), First Prize in the Hubbard Solo and Chamber Music Competition (February 2011), Fourth Prize in the Cooper International Piano Competition in Oberlin, Ohio (of 43 pianists from eight countries) (July 2010), the Bayard H. Friedman Award for Outstanding Student in Performing Arts presented by Performing Arts Fort Worth (May 2010), First Prize in the Piano Division of the 2010 Lennox International Young Artist Competition (January 2010), Winner of the Texas Music Teachers Association statewide 2009, Solo Contest Winner of the Fort Worth Symphony 2009 Young Artists Competition, and First Prize in the Piano Division and overall Grand Prize in the 2009 Juanita Miller Concerto Competition, sponsored by the Texas Association of Symphony Orchestras (TASO).

Sahun has been invited to perform with the Brazos Valley Symphony, East Texas Symphony, Waco Symphony, and Galveston Symphony. He performed with the Richardson Symphony in March 2010 and performed the Beethoven Concerto No. 3 with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in September 2009. Howard Aibel wrote in New York Concert Review that Sahun “was at home at the keyboard, performing this great Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 with lots of clarity, confidence and wisdom.”

Sahun has been heard on the nationally broadcast radio show “From the Top.” The April 2008 issue of Fort Worth, Texas magazine featured Sahun in an article titled “14 Brilliant Minds.”

Josué González