Haewon Song

  • Professor of Piano
  • Chair, Piano Department

Areas of Study

Education

  • MM, Juilliard School, 1986
  • BM, Juilliard School, 1986
  • Study with Shuku Iwasaki, Julian Martin, Martin Canin

Biography

Pianist Haewon Song is a member of the acclaimed Oberlin Trio. An internationally recognized artist and pedagogue, Song has performed and taught at top venues throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Her frequent appearances include concerto performances with the KBS Orchestra in Seoul, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, and Oberlin Conservatory ensembles.  

Song has appeared at numerous international festivals, among them Mexico’s Cervantino Festival, the All-American Music Festival in Stuttgart, Grand Teton Music Festival, Aria Festival, Canada’s Institute of Musical Arts, Festival de Nice in France, the Oberlin Summer Piano Festival, and the Tonghai Music Festival in Taiwan. In 2005, Song toured Korea as a member of the Oberlin Piano Quartet, which included celebrated performances in Daejun and at the Kumho Concert Hall in Seoul.

A native of South Korea, Song attended the Toho School in Tokyo, Peabody Preparatory School, and the Juilliard School, where her major teachers were Julian Martin, Martin Canin, and Shuku Iwasaki. She has taught at Tunghai University in Taiwan and Kyung Won University in Seoul, and has been a member of the Oberlin piano department since 1991. Throughout her tenure at Oberlin, her students have won major prizes in both national and international competitions, including MTNA Nationals, Wideman, Kingsville, Oberlin International Piano, Walgreen, World, and Corpus Christi, and they regularly appear with significant orchestras across the United States and Asia.

As a member of the Oberlin Trio, Song is featured in recordings of trios by Franz Joseph Haydn, released on Naxos in June 2022 and on the 2016 Oberlin Music label release of trios by Joan Tower, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Antonín Dvořák.

In spring 2023, the trio released three short performance videos on YouTube. 

Song is a frequent performer in duo piano recitals with her husband and fellow Oberlin faculty member Robert Shannon; their recording of George Crumb’s Celestial Mechanics (Bridge Records) has been hailed as “a wonderfully buoyant rhythmic performance” (Classicstoday.com).

In 2005, Song toured Korea as a member of the Oberlin Piano Quartet, which included celebrated performances in Daejun and at the Kumho Concert Hall in Seoul.

Spring 2024

Principal Private Study - Piano — PVST 001
Secondary Private Study (Piano) — PVST 051
Performance Ensembles (Artist Diploma) — APST 600
Performance Project (Artist Diploma) — APST 601
Chamber Music — APST 800
Contemporary Chamber Music — APST 805
Piano Ensemble — APST 810

Fall 2024

Principal Private Study - Piano — PVST 001
Secondary Private Study - Piano — PVST 051
Performance Ensembles (Artist Diploma) — APST 600
Performance Project (Artist Diploma) — APST 601
Chamber Music — APST 800
Piano Ensemble — APST 810

Notes

"Haydn: Piano Trios Vol. 7: Named Ideastream Recording of the Week

March 17, 2023

On October 24, 2022, Ideastream Public Media named The Oberlin Trio's June 2022 album their Recording of the Week. The release on Naxos includes Haydn’s piano trios from his very first, written around 1765, to his 33rd, composed about 30 years later. The trio's members are Oberlin Conservatory faculty—pianist Haewon Song, violinist David Bowlin, and cellist Dmitry Kouzov.

News

This Week in Photos: Elections to Mini Pumpkins

November 4, 2020

In this week’s photo series we swing by the voting polls, rub elbows with a professor, linger under a big tent of images, decompress at an outside night concert and faculty recital, pull up a seat at the Cat, head to Finney Chapel for taiko, and pick up a brush to do some mini pumpkin painting.

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