Pianist HaeSun Paik Joins Faculty, Accepting Applications

CIM has announced the appointment of pianist HaeSun Paik to the piano faculty.

"It is with great pride that I welcome Ms. Paik, one of the world's most talented and virtuosic piano performers and most thoughtful pedagogues, to our faculty," said President Joel Smirnoff. "CIM is so pleased to bring this special artist-teacher into our community and looks forward with excitement as Ms. Paik, a world class performing artist, begins to share her performances and her deep musical insight with the CIM community, with Cleveland and with Northeast Ohio."

CIM is actively accepting applications to study with Ms. Paik.

Pianist HaeSun Paik has been hailed as a "sensitive and thinking musician first and an awesome technician second" (Los Angeles Times), with a "big and individual personality" (New York Times), whose performances are "a wonder - elastic, mercurial, charged with meaning, surprising" (Boston Globe). Having won top prizes at international piano competitions including the Queen Elisabeth, Leeds, William Kapell, and the Tchaikovsky, Ms. Paik has performed concerts around the world in solo recitals, concerti with orchestra, and as a chamber musician.

HaeSun Paik has appeared as a soloist under the baton of Mikhail Pletnev, Sir Simon Rattle, Vassily Sinaisky, Dmitri Kitaenko, Stanislav Skrovaczewski, and Myung Whun Chung. She has performed with the Boston Symphony, National Symphony, London Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Radio France Philharmonic, KBS Symphony, NHK Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, Osaka Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Belgium National Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, Moscow Philharmonic, and the Russian National Orchestra, among many others.

Ms. Paik has appeared frequently in recital at prestigious venues throughout the U.S. including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center and Jordan Hall in Boston. Her international tours have brought her to major concert halls around the globe. She has appeared at numerous international music festivals including the Beethoven Festival in Munich, Radio France Festival in Montpellier, Courchevel Music Festival in France, Beijing International Music Festival and Academy, Orford Music Festival in Canada, International Keyboard Institute & Festival in New York, PianoSummer at New Paltz (New York), and the Busan Music Festival in Korea.

A superb collaborative artist, Ms. Paik has performed with many distinguished artists including cellists Anner Bylsma and Mischa Maisky, violist Nobuko Imai, and clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. Her recent recording with cellist Laurence Lesser of the complete works by Beethoven for cello and piano has been released by Bridge Records. Her debut and subsequent solo recordings can be heard on the EMI label.

One of the most sought after pedagogical influences in Korea, Ms. Paik was the youngest pianist of her generation to be appointed as a music professor at Seoul National University, where she taught for ten years. She will join the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music in the fall of 2013. She is Artist-in-Residence at Catholic University of Daegu and serves as the Artistic Director of the Busan Music Festival in Korea. She gives master classes at institutions and festivals worldwide and has served as a juror in many international competitions including the Bosendorfer, the Cleveland and the Honens international piano competitions.

HaeSun Paik's artistic development has been influenced by her studies with Russell Sherman and Wha Kyung Byun, and through her studies at the International Piano Foundation in Lake Como (Italy) where she worked with international artists including Alicia de Larrocha, Karl Urlich Schnabel, Rosalyn Tureck, and Alexis Weissenberg.