Kang to present faculty piano recital

Dr. Juyeon Kang, associate professor of music at Northwestern College, will present a faculty piano recital on Saturday, Oct. 22, at 7:30 p.m. in Christ Chapel. The event, featuring music by Beethoven, Mozart and Liszt, is free and open to the public.

Kang spent the 2010–11 academic year on sabbatical, studying piano at the University of Vienna and attending master classes at various European institutions. Her performance of Beethoven and Mozart pieces at this recital grew out of her sabbatical study of German piano literature and culture. She previously performed them during summer recitals in Vienna, Hong Kong and Thailand.

The recital will feature a wide variety of musical styles, revealing the artistry of piano music, according to Kang. She will perform Mozart’s Allegro in B flat Major, K. 400 and Rondo in F Major, K. 494 and Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 28 in A Major, Op. 101. In commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Franz Liszt, Kang will perform two of his Petrarch sonnets and three movements of his Grand Etude of Paganini.

Kang launched a performance career that included her debut solo recital in Boston’s Jordan Hall after winning two first prizes in 1998: the Heida Hermann’s Young Artists Competition and the Josef Hofmann Piano Competition. She has performed extensively on four continents, including appearing as a soloist with the Korean Symphony Orchestra, Augusta Symphony Orchestra and South Dakota Symphony Orchestra. 

Kang earned doctoral and master’s degrees in piano performance and literature, as well as a master’s degree in pedagogy of music theory, at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. She joined Northwestern’s faculty in 2003.