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), pianist HaeSun Paik’s performances have been described as “a wonder — elastic, mercurial, charged with meaning, surprising” (Boston Globe) and “a rare example of technique actually serving both idea and feeling, head and heart” (Musical America). A top prize winner at the Queen Elisabeth, Leeds, William Kapell, and Tchaikovsky International Competitions, she has performed extensively in solo recitals, with major orchestras, and in chamber settings across the globe.
She has appeared as a soloist under the baton of Mikhail Pletnev, Sir Simon Rattle, Vassily Sinaisky, Dmitri Kitaenko, Stanislav Skrowaczewski, and Myung Whun Chung, and with orchestras including the Boston, National, London, City of Birmingham, Belgium National, Osaka, NHK, KBS, Munich, Radio France, Tokyo, Warsaw, Moscow Philharmonic, and the Russian National Orchestra.
Her recital credits include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, and Jordan Hall, with festival appearances at the Beethoven Festival (Munich), Radio France Festival (Montpellier), Courchevel, Dino Ciani, Ishikawa, Beijing International, Orford, Monadnock, IKIF, PianoSummer, PYPA at Curtis, and Korea’s PyeongChang and Busan Festivals.
Her duo recording of the complete Beethoven works for cello and piano with Laurence Lesser is available on Bridge Records, and her solo albums appear on the EMI label.
A leading pedagogical figure, Paik was the youngest pianist of her generation appointed professor at Seoul National University, later served on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music, and currently teaches at the New England Conservatory. She also serves as artist-in-residence at the Catholic University of Daegu and Artistic Director of the Busan Music Festival. She gives master classes at institutions and festivals worldwide and has served as a juror in many international competitions including the Bösendorfer and Yamaha USASU, the Cleveland, the Gina Bachauer, the Hilton Head, the Honens, and the Seoul (Dong-A) international piano competitions.
