The World On arirang

Park Jong-hwa is a concert pianist and a professor. Park began playing the piano at age four and quickly established his international credentials, making his professional debut when he was nine years old at the Yamaha Hall in Tokyo. Park was recognized as a musical child prodigy and performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras.

Park achieved many accolades throughout his career. Park received first prizes at national competitions in Japan, Korea and the US. Internationally, Park is a recipient of a number of awards including the Queen Elizabeth International Piano Competition, the Santander International Piano Competition, the Rubinstein International Competition and the Ferrucio Busoni International Piano Competition.
In 2007, he was offered a professorship at Seoul National University, the most prestigious university in South Korea. Since becoming a faculty member at Seoul National University, he has spearheaded innovative lectures and international festivals. Most recently, Park spearheaded “Chopin- Cometh” international festival, in which he was responsible for organizing a series of festivals, lectures, workshops and performances to celebrate the composer’s bicentennial in 2010. The two-week long festival was joined by a dozen of distinguished guests including Chopin specialist John Rink from Cambridge University in London; Piotr Paleczny from Poland; and acclaimed pianist, Sa Chen from Germany.

On today’s Heart to Heart, Pianist Park Jong-hwa is here with us to share his life in music as well as giving us great piano performances.