February 12, 2007

Pianist Heng-Jin Park At Kalamazoo College

KALAMAZOO, MI—Pianist Heng-Jin Park will perform works by Ravel, Bartok, and Chopin at a Kalamazoo College concert at 8 p.m. on Saturday, February 17, in Dalton Theatre in the Light Fine Arts Building. The concert is free and open to the public.

Park is a highly acclaimed musician who began her career at age 15, soloing with the Boston Pops. Since then she has been soloist with the Boston Premier Ensemble Orchestra and many other orchestras. She has also given recitals at renowned concert halls such as Carnegie Hall in New York as well as in Switzerland, France, Serbia, Korea, and Canada.

Park studied under Leonard Shure and Russell Sherman at the New England Conservatory where she received her Bachelor and Master degrees. She also worked with Marie-Francoise Buquet at the Conservatoire Nationale Superieur de la Musique de Paris. Park has received numerous awards including the Tourjée Grant and Frank H. Beebe Grant.

“…A centered musician with uncommon control over the sonorous possibilities of her instrument; she plays boldly with a full spectrum of colors, expertly mixed…” writes Richard Dyer of Park in The Boston Globe.

Along with performing, Heng-Jin Park dedicates her time to teaching and playing chamber music. She is one of the founding members of the Boston Trio as well as the current pianist of the trio. In the summer months, she teaches at the International Musical Arts Institute in Maine and the Killington Music Festival. Currently, Park is on the faculty at M.I.T., the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, and Walnut Hill Performing Arts School.

At her Kalamazoo College concert, Park will perform Ravel’s "Jeax d’eau" and "Valses Nobles et Sentimentales," the "Piano Sonata" by Bartok and three works by Chopin, "Ballade No. 4 in F minor," "Nocturne in B Major, Opus 32, No. 1," and "Scherzo in C-sharp minor." For more information, please contact the Kalamazoo Music Department Office at (269) 337-7070.

A Fellowship in Learning: At Home in the World, Kalamazoo College is a national liberal arts college and the creator and home of the Kalamazoo Plan. By emphasizing scholarship, civic engagement, and foreign study, Kalamazoo College cultivates a fellowship in learning among students, faculty, and a community of scholars throughout the world. Its students shape elements of the Kalamazoo Plan—rigorous academics, career internships, study abroad, service-learning, and a senior individualized project—into an educational experience that provides insight into the meaning of the kind of citizenship that is at home in the world.