Biography

English / Deutsch / 한글

One of the most sought-after pianists of her generation, pianist HieYon Choi first gained international recognition as a prizewinner at major competitions including the Kapell, Épinal, Busoni, and Viotti. Since then, she has appeared with leading orchestras across Europe, the United States, and Korea, among them the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.), Rundfunkorchester Berlin, Berlin Symphoniker, Northern Sinfonia, Seoul Philharmonic, Korean Broadcast Symphony, Busan Philharmonic, Incheon Philharmonic, Philharmonie du Lorraine, Lausanne Chamber, and Korea Chamber. Her collaborators at the podium have included Jesús López Cobos, Dmitri Kitajenko, Markus Stenz, Pascal Rophé, Roland Kluttig, Kwame Ryan, and Thomas Zehetmair, as well as leading Korean conductors. She has also appeared at international festivals and series such as Schleswig-Holstein, Tongyeong, Seoul International, Ernen Musikdorf, Schloss Bourglinster, Vevey, Assisi, Sierre, Dame Myra Hess, Kumho Art Hall, and Sungnam Matinee.

A milestone of Choi’s performing career was the four-year long cycle of all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas at the sold-out Kumho Art Hall in Seoul. This monumental achievement earned her the 2003 Nanpa Awards and the 2005 Arts Award of the Year by the Arts Council Korea. She later completed another Beethoven cycle featuring all of his piano trios, violin sonatas and works for cello and piano at the same venue. Her second complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle took place in various locations across Korea, Germany, Sweden, Croatia and the United States and concluded in 2018. Her other notable series include ones that explored Brahms and his associates and that of French school. She has collaborated with esteemed musicians such as Truls Mørk, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Peter Stumph, Jennifer Koh, Ulf Wallin, Mikyung Lee, Soovin Kim and Stephan Dohr, among others.

Alongside the canon of the classical piano literature such as Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Debussy, modern music forms another important part of Choi’s artistic journey. A devoted advocate of the new music, she was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence of Tong-Yeong International Music festival in Korea and has performed works of Olivier Messiaen, György Kurtag, Sofia Gubaidulina, York Höller, Peter Eötvös, Sukhi Kang, Unsuk Chin, Juri Seo a. o. for the LA Philharmonic Green Umbrella, Seoul Philharmonic Ars Nova, Seoul International Music Festival, Ilshin Prism Series. As a visionary pedagogue, Choi directed various contemporary music projects at Seoul National University, contributing to the enrichment of musical scene in Korea.

From 2015 to 2023, Choi recorded the complete Beethoven piano sonatas at Teldex Studio Berlin. Released worldwide on Decca Korea/UMG in 2025, this monumental cycle has drawn international acclaim. Piano News praised her “magnificent sense of sound” and natural pacing that avoids exaggeration while sustaining expressive intensity.

Gramophone highlighted her “scurrying brio and harmonic awareness” in the early sonatas and singled out her finale of Op. 10 No. 1 as “one of this sonata’s greatest-ever recorded interpretations.” Her earlier Decca release (2018), featuring Sonatas Nos. 18, 26, 27, and 30, received wide recognition in Germany and Korea. Her broader discography includes Debussy’s Douze Études, Liszt’s Six Grandes Études de Paganini, Isang Yun’s 5 Stücke, and Chopin’s complete Études Op. 10 & 25, with performances broadcast in Korea, the United States, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, and Germany.

In 2023/24, Choi joined the piano faculty at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA, after serving for 24 years as a tenured professor at Seoul National University in Korea. Many of her students have gone on to establish successful careers as performers and educators in Korea, Germany, France, and the United States. Choi has given numerous masterclasses worldwide at institutions such as the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (London), Sibelius Academy (Helsinki), and leading conservatories in Paris, Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Düsseldorf, and Bremen in Germany, as well as at Manhattan School of Music, Boston, Cincinnati, Michigan, and Kansas in the United States. She has also taught at conservatories and summer festivals in Hong Kong, China, Korea, Amalfi, Brescia, Vienna, Prague, St. Petersburg, Orléans, San Francisco, Chicago, Bowdoin, Tampa, Jeju, Busan, and Yongpyeong. Additionally, she serves as a jury member for prestigious international competitions, including the Beethoven, Busoni, Maj Lind, Pozzoli, Epinal, and Orléans.

Born in Incheon, South Korea, Choi made her concerto debut at the age of six with the Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra. Under the early guidance of Professor Joong-Won Koh, she won all four of Korea’s most prestigious competitions (Dong-A, JoongAng, Korea Times, and Ewha-KyungHyang). At 18, she moved to Germany to study with Professor Klaus Hellwig at the Berlin University of the Arts. She later continued her studies with the late Hans Leygraf in the same institute and with the late György Sebők at Indiana University.

updated 2025