NATCHITOCHES - Pianist Jeongwon Ham will present a recital at Northwestern State University Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. The concert is part of the Louisiana Piano Series International. Tickets are $10. Students are admitted free. Dr. Francis Yang and Dr. Christine Burczyk Allen are the organizers of the Louisiana Piano Series International.

     Ham has won numerous piano competitions, including the Bartók/Kabalevsky International competition, Paul Hindemith competition, Simone Belsky competition, and Folkwang piano competition. Also, she won top prizes at the Epinal International Piano Competition and Artur Schnabel Piano Competition. The New York Concert Review referred to her debut recital in Merkin Hall, New York City, as “an admirable piano recital.” The German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau has written, “Jeongwon Ham possessed astonishing and effortless technique. She plays not only with incredible warmth, but also with great power.” 

     Ham gave her New York City debut recital at the Merkin Concerto Hall and has performed in Europe , Asia, and the United States. In 2005, she went to Beijing, China, as the artist in residence at the Renmin University of China and gave a recital, master classes, and a workshop. In the same year, she also gave recitals, workshops, master classes, and radio interviews in several cities in Germany and Korea. Recently, she performed in Beijing and performed solo recitals in Sheffield, England, and in Berlin, Germany. She has been a featured pianist at international and national conferences and festivals including the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities and Festival Internationale Incontri Musicali di Sorrento in Italy.

     As a soloist, Ham has performed with orchestras including Das Symphonie Orchestra Berlin and Symphonie Orchestra of the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, Orchestra of University Essen (Essen, Germany), and Philharmonie de Lorraine (Epinal, France). In the United States, she also performed with Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra (Michigan), North Arkansas Symphony, OU Wind Symphony, University of Northern Iowa Symphony Orchestra, and Waterloo-Cedar Falls (Iowa) Symphony Orchestra. 

     Ham has been an adjudicator at many international and national piano competitions including the Bartók/Kabalevsky/Prokofiev International Piano Competition, Sonatina and Sonata International Youth Piano Competition, Starr Young Artist National Piano Competition, and Dallas Symphony Young Artist Competition. In addition, she is frequently invited to judge numerous MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) piano competitions at regional, divisional, and state levels.

     Ham obtained degrees from the United States and Germany. In Germany, she graduated with highest distinctions (Reifeprüfung) from the Folkwang Hochschule für Musik in Essen and the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin (Konzertexamen). She received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Kansas.

     She has held teaching positions in Germany and the U.S. In Germany, she taught at the Hochschule für Musik Hans-Eisler and Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach Arts School in Berlin, and the University of Duisburg. Ham has been a faculty member of the University of Arkansas and the University of Northern Iowa. Currently, she is an associate professor of piano at the University of Oklahoma.