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NEC Prep pianist Seokyoung Hong wins top prizes at The Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition
New England Conservatory Preparatory School student Seokyoung Hong takes top prize and Audience Award at The Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition
NEC Prep student Seokyoung Hong (15) of South Korea won the $15,000 Bernice Gressman Meyerson First Prize and $500 Audience Award in the competition, with an additional $2,500 to apply toward furthering musical achievement, securing cash awards totaling $18,000.
Hong made his final performance with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra featuring conductor Valentina Peleggi at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Fort Worth, TX.
Boston, MA (FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE): The winners of the 2023 Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival held in Dallas, TX on June 17 have been announced.
After 12 days of thrilling competition and final concert with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra featuring conductor Valentina Peleggi at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, NEC Prep student Seokyoung Hong of South Korea won the $15,000 Bernice Gressman Meyerson First Prize and $500 Audience Award in the competition, with an additional $2,500 to apply toward furthering musical achievement. For the prestigious competition’s final round, the 15-year-old performed Rachmaninov's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, op. 43." The finalists were selected from 248 applicants, representing 44 countries, and online viewership topped 1.2 million views in 122 countries, nearly doubling the 2019 Cliburn Junior total of 650,000 views.
Seokyoung Hong began his studies at NEC’s Preparatory School in 2022 with HaeSun Paik, co-chair of the College’s piano department and Prep faculty member. He has had several first or second-place finishes at international competitions in Korea, Switzerland, and the United States. Following two years at the Yewon School in his native Seoul, he moved to Boston to study piano at NEC Prep while also attending the Walnut Hill School for the Arts.
Seokyoung found inspiration from the two most recent winners of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, South Korea’s Yekwon Sunwoo and Yunchan Lim (an incoming NEC student and Cliburn’s youngest pianist to win gold), which was part of his motivation for taking part in the Cliburn Junior. Hong also hopes to develop his piano playing and artistry, as well as to build experience performing for large audiences.
“I hope to be a pianist that can remind and somehow transfer the audience’s own personal stories," Hong says on the Cliburn website. "From those reminded experiences, I hope they find happiness, relief and even nostalgia. Beyond thinking about the stories from the past, I also hope they can imagine lots of things while and after listening to my performance.”
“It has been an exceptional experience to guide Seokyoung for the past four years. He is already an extraordinarily accomplished pianist, but through this competition, I witnessed his creative, captivating artistry in his performances. I share his joy in this fantastic achievement, and look forward to continuing our musical journey together,” said pianist and Hong’s teacher, HaeSun Paik.
“At NEC Prep, we are proud to nurture, support, and train students of remarkable talent like Seokyoung,” said President Andrea Kalyn. “Seokyoung's journey is just beginning, and we look forward to watching him continue to thrive.”
HaeSun Paik teaches at both the Preparatory and College levels at NEC. Paik also teaches Katherine Liu, a 2023 U.S.Presidential Scholar. NEC is currently still accepting students for the upcoming academic year, beginning in September, 2023, and applications may be submitted here.
About the Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival: The Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival was established in 2015 as another means for the Cliburn to use its standing and expertise to encourage tomorrow’s great artists, to provide a valuable forum for them to express themselves, and to give them an entrance to the next step of their journeys. Key ingredients were top international jurors, the media and webcast, Final Round performances with orchestra, and the festival atmosphere, which included performance experience and artistic workshops—all put into place to make the program significantly useful for students with aspirations of being professional musicians.
About New England Conservatory (NEC)
Founded by Eben Tourjée in Boston, Massachusetts in 1867, the New England Conservatory (NEC) represents a new model of music school that combines the best of European tradition with American innovation. The school stands at the center of Boston’s rich cultural history and musical life, presenting concerts at the renowned Jordan Hall. Propelled by profound artistry, bold creativity and deep compassion, NEC seeks to amplify musicians’ impact on advancing our shared humanity, and empowers students to meet today’s changing world head-on, equipped with the tools and confidence to forge multidimensional lives of artistic depth and relevance.
As an independent, not-for-profit institution that educates and trains musicians of all ages from around the world, NEC is recognized internationally as a leader among music schools. It cultivates a diverse, dynamic community, providing music students of more than 40 countries with performance opportunities and high-caliber training from 225 internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars. NEC pushes the boundaries of music-making and teaching through college-level training in classical, jazz and contemporary improvisation. Through unique interdisciplinary programs such as Entrepreneurial Musicianship and Community Performances & Partnerships, it empowers students to create their own musical opportunities. As part of NEC’s mission to make lifelong music education available to everyone, the Preparatory School and School of Continuing Education delivers training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students and adults.
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