Chi Yong Yun

Chi Yong Yun, pianist and singer, is director of piano studies at Andrews University, a position she has held since 2008. She was born in Seoul, Korea, and at age three or four began playing what she heard her sister practicing. She moved to the United States at age six. The recipient of many honors and awards, she received both undergraduate and graduate degrees with honors from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University as a Thomson Star Fellow.

As an undergraduate, Yun pursued dual degrees, having been accepted into the prestigious Performers Diploma program. Her piano studies at IU were under the tutelage of Edmund Battersby, Karen Shaw and Menahem Pressler. Yun is currently pursuing a D.M.A. at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, studying piano with internationally acclaimed pianist Ian Hobson.

Yun has performed as a solo and chamber recitalist and lecturer in the U.S., Korea, Europe, and the Philippines. The top prizewinner of numerous international and national competitions, she was invited to participate in the Aspen Music, the Shandelee International Piano, and Folgarida Summer festivals, the latter in Prague. She was also invited to participate in Deeper Piano Studies with Frederic Chiu and has performed in master classes for legendary artists Leonard Hokanson, Gyorgy Sebok, Abbey Simon, Janos Starker, Andre Watts, and Earl Wild.

A mezzo soprano, Yun studied voice with Camilla Williams, Alan Bennett, and Cynthia Hayman. In April 2010, she sang as a soloist in a presentation at Andrews University of the final movement, part II, from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

She has also studied conducting with Carmen Tellez and David Effron. While pursuing undergraduate and graduate study, she taught at Indiana University, the University of Illinois, and Illinois Wesleyan University.

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Sources: Biography at Andrews University website; Program notes for a recital at the AU Howard Performing Arts Center, 27 March 2010; Ralph Heibutzki, “Instrumental Conversations,” The Herald Palladium, St. Joseph/Benton Harbor, Michigan, 20 September 2012; Other online sources.