Dr. Grace Fong

Professor; Director, Keyboard Studies, Chapman University

Grace Fong is an internationally acclaimed American pianist whose performances have taken her across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. She has appeared at iconic venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Hollywood Bowl, the Liszt Academy (Budapest), and the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing), and has performed as soloist with major orchestras such as the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra under Valery Gergiev and the Hallé Orchestra under Sir Mark Elder.

A prizewinner of numerous international competitions, including Leeds, Grace Fong is also the recipient of one of America’s most prestigious piano honors — the Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship of the American Pianists Association (the first woman to win the award in 12 years). She was additionally named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, receiving a White House medallion by the President of the United States and performing at the Kennedy Center.

Born in Los Angeles, Fong studied at the University of Southern California as a Trustee (full) Scholarship recipient, completing a double major and minor, and earning the Renaissance Scholar Prize and the USC Thornton School of Music’s Most Outstanding Keyboard Graduate award. She completed her Master’s and Doctoral degrees at the Cleveland Institute of Music as a Victor Babin Scholar, receiving the Sadie Zellen and William Kurzban piano prizes. Her teachers and mentors include Sergei Babayan, John Perry, Louise Lepley, Paulina Drake, and Norberto Cappone.

She has worked with Grammy- and Oscar-winning artists and collaborated across disciplines including dance, film, fashion, visual art, and Michelin-starred culinary arts, expanding the boundaries of classical performance.

Currently Full Professor and Director of Piano Studies at Chapman University, Fong is known for her expressive artistry, innovative collaborations, and deep commitment to mentorship. She is especially passionate about bringing world-class performances to underserved communities, and about using the arts as a vehicle for healing, connection, and belonging. Her work bridges classical performance, interdisciplinary creation, and arts advocacy — bringing music into concert halls, communities, and healing spaces around the world.

For more information, visit: pianistgracefong.com

Dr. Myungjoo Lee

California State University, Fullerton

Pianist Myong-Joo Lee has been praised for her “shapely, expressive, songful performances that conveyed the composer’s emotional world,” and for her ability to “avoid virtuosic emptiness by placing phrases in context, sustaining crystalline sonorities…” (Cleveland Plain Dealer). Her playing has also been lauded for “a freshness and idiomatic rightness… a refinement that never neglected the stylized dance elements” (Arts & Letters, The Star). A top prizewinner in numerous national and international competitions, Lee earned First Prize at the Pro Piano Artist Series Competition in New York and the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition. She has also been awarded prizes at the Guild International Piano Competition, Johanna Hodge International Piano Competition, the Cleveland International Piano Competition and the Chopin Kosciuszko Foundation Piano Competition, among others.

As a recitalist, Lee has performed in major venues including Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Carnegie Recital Hall, the Frick Collection, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Cleveland Museum of Art, Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, Seoul Arts Center, and Young-San Art Hall in Korea. Her orchestral engagements include appearances with the Romanian Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, Memphis Chamber Orchestra, and Sewanee Festival Orchestra, with performances broadcast on WQXR (New York) and WCLV (Cleveland).

Lee is in demand internationally as a teacher, adjudicator, and clinician. She has given masterclasses and workshops across the U.S., Asia, and Europe and has been a guest artist at music festivals such as the Art of the Piano at the University of Cincinnati, Jeju International Piano Festival (Korea), Taiwan International Piano Festival, and Music Fest Perugia (Italy). She frequently serves on juries for prestigious national and international competitions.

Her students, both at the pre-college and collegiate levels, have consistently won top prizes at major competitions including the Cooper International Piano Competition, Hilton Head International Piano Competition, Virginia Waring International Piano Competition, From the Top Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award, Los Angeles Philharmonic Bronislaw Kaper Award, Blount Slawson Young Artist Competition, Mondavi Young Artist Competition, MTNA National Competitions, and the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition.

Lee holds BM and MM degrees from Indiana University and earned her DMA from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, where she was Teaching Assistant to the renowned pianist John Perry. Her principal teachers have included Paul Schenly, Michel Block, Zadel Skolovsky, Sergei Babayan and Leonard Hokanson and have also worked with Claude Frank and Richard Goode. Lee is currently on the piano faculty at California State University, Fullerton, and serves as Founder and Artistic Director of the Vancouver Piano Sessions in British Columbia, Canada. She has also held teaching positions at the University of Puget Sound, USC Thornton School of Music, and the Colburn Music Academy at The Colburn School in Los Angeles.

Photo: vancouverpianosessions.com

Dr. Alan Woo

University of Georgia — Assistant Professor of Piano

Praised by the New York Times as a pianist with “assurance and vitality,” Alan Woo made his Lincoln Center debut at Alice Tully Hall performing with the Juilliard Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He has since collaborated with conductors Daniel Hege, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and Tito Muñoz in solo appearances with the Houston Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, and Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra.

Woo’s recent engagements include solo recitals throughout the US, Brazil, Europe, and Asia. He has been featured on The McGraw Hill Financial Young Artists Showcase broadcasted on WQXR in New York and has performed in venues such as Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Recital Halls. As chamber musician, he has made appearances at the New York Philharmonic Ensembles, Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta, Lake George Music Festival, Chamber Music Athens, Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, and La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest series, among others.

Born in Arlington, Virginia, Woo is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Peabody Conservatory where he completed degrees in piano performance under Robert McDonald and Yong Hi Moon. He currently teaches at the University of Georgia as an assistant professor of piano, having previously held positions at Elizabeth City State University and Peabody Institute.

Dr. Judy Huang

As the Grand Prize winner of the 2004 Carmel Music Society Competition, Dr. Judy Huang has brought sensitivity, depth, and richness to her music through her versatility, lyricism, and technique. From her New York debut in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2006, and each appearance since, she has received great acclaim.

Dr. Huang has performed in concerts and given recitals around the world, from Taiwan, to the United States and Europe. As a soloist, she has performed with such orchestras as the Marina Del Rey-Westchester Symphony, Peninsula Symphony, Ventura Symphony, Redlands Symphony, Riverside Symphony, Concordia Orchestra, Crossroads Chamber Orchestra, UCLA Philharmonia, and Palermo Orchestra (Italy). As a chamber musician, she was a member of the Pro Arte Trio, which performed in the Young Artist Peninsula Music Festival and was featured in live performances on KUSC 91.5 FM.

The trio was awarded first prizes in both the Chamber Music Society of Monterey Peninsula Competition and the Music Teacher Association of California Chamber Music Competition. Sharing her passion of chamber music, she is dedicated to community outreach programs and has collaborated with members of Pacific Symphony and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

Dr. Huang received her BA, MM, and DMA degrees from UCLA. Her principle teachers were Robert Turner, Ming Qiang Li, Aube Tzerko, and Vitaly Margulis. She has taught at UCLA, Los Angeles Valley College, and International Institute for Young Musicians and Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana.

Dr. Huang has served as adjudicator in the MTNA Competitions in California and for the Music Teacher Association of California. Most recently, she is appointed as the State Chair of the Music Teacher Association of California Association of California Concerto/Solo Piano Competitions. Dr. Huang, a consistent national and international prize winner in solo competitions, also performs Duo Piano concerts with Turkish pianist, Fureya Unal throughout California.

Sung Chang

Pianist & Conductor

Pianist Sung Chang is known for his outstanding technical abilities, musical maturity, and sensitive yet powerful expression that shines through the keys. He has received critical acclaim for his “poetic imagination, superb technical skills, and, most importantly, a deep emotional connection to whatever music he plays” by Jeffrey Kahane.

Born in Seoul, Korea, Sung Chang gave his debut concert at the age of five. At 16 he was accepted into the prestigious Korea National University of Arts, and his musical virtuosity attracted international attention when he became the youngest ever to win the Nagoya International Piano Competition in Japan.

Since then Chang has gone on to win more than ten international competitions around the world including in the United States, Germany, Italy, Korea, and Japan. His impressive list of awards from the major international piano competitions includes the first prize and the audience prize at the Chopin-Gesellschaft Hannover Internationaler Klavierwettbewerb, the first prize and the special award for the "Best Performance of a Virtuoso Piece" at the Bösendorfer USASU International Piano Competition, a silver medal with two special prizes in "Best Performance of a Work by a Classical Composer" and "Best Performance of a Work by a Spanish, Latin American or Impressionistic Composer" at the San Antonio International Piano Competition, and a silver medal at the New Orleans International Piano Competition.

Chang currently resides in Los Angeles, California after completing further studies at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover in Hannover, Germany and the USC Thornton School of Music.