Chaeyoung Park and Yun-Chin Zhou Win the 2017 Gina Bachauer Piano Competition at Juilliard

The Juilliard School announced that Chaeyoung Park and Yun-Chin Zhou are winners of the 2017 Gina Bachauer Piano Competition. This is a second win for Mr. Zhou, who was the recipient in 2013. Ms. Park and Mr. Zhou will perform a joint recital on Tuesday, September 26, 2017, at 7:30pm in Paul Hall, which will be broadcast at a later date on WQXR 105.9 FM. The recital opens the 40th season of The McGraw Family Young Artists Showcase with host Robert Sherman. The WQXR radio show is supported by The Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Family Foundation. During the recital, the recipient of the Robert Sherman Award for Music Education and Community Outreach will be announced.

Pianist Chaeyoung Park will perform Bach's (arr. Siloti) Prelude in B Minor and Bartók's Out of Doors. Pianist Yun-Chin Zhou will play Liszt's Réminiscences de Norma, S. 394. The duo will perform William Bolcom's Recuerdos for two pianos.

Free tickets will be available beginning September 18 at juilliard.edu/calendar.

Past Bachauer winners have included Michael Brown, Michael Bukhman, Sean Chen, William Chen, Ran Dank, Fei-Fei Dong, Anna Han, Yoonjung Han, Ching-Wen Hsiao, Oskar Jezior, Naomi Kudo, Soyeon Lee, Mackenzie Melemed, Adam Neiman, Ian Parker, Edward Robie, Konstantin Soukhovetski, Tristan Teo, Andrew Tyson, Chuan Qin, Xun Wang, Yun Wei, Orion Weiss, Alan Woo, Yun-Chin Zhou, Xiang Zou, and Eric Zuber.

About Chaeyoung Park

Pianist Chaeyoung Park, from South Korea, was awarded a silver medal in the 2016 Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Competition. She has received top awards in many national and international competitions, including a gold medal in music by the National YoungArts Foundation in 2014; 2015 Cleveland Young Artists Piano Competition; 2015 Yamaha USASU International Senior Piano Competition; and 2014 Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition. She won first place in the 2014 Emilio Del Rosario International Young Artists Piano Competition as well as the 2012 IIYM (International Institute for Young Musicians) International Competition, where she also won the audience prize. Ms. Park was the youngest semifinalist and finalist at the 2012 Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competition and was awarded first prize in the junior level of the Louisiana International Piano Competition in 2011.

Ms. Park has performed in venues including Orchestra Hall at Chicago Symphony Center, Merkin Hall, Cleveland Music of Art, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New World Center in Miami, Helzberg Hall at Kauffman Center for Performing Arts, Kodak Hall at Eastman School of Music, and the Lied Center of Kansas. She has performed with the Utah Symphony Orchestra with Rei Hotoda, Kansas City Symphony with Michael Stern, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra with Neil Varon, Canton Symphony Orchestra with Gerhardt Zimmermann, New Millenium Symphony with Francesco Milioto, and the Topeka Symphony Orchestra with Robert Olson, among others. She has participated in master classes with Leon Fleisher, Jerome Lowenthal, Jorge Osorio, Michael Stern, and John Perry.

Ms. Park began playing the piano at age 6 in South Korea. She moved to Lawrence, Kan. in 2007 and studied with Jack Winerock at the University of Kansas for eight years. She also studied with Dr. Scott Smith. Ms. Park is pursuing her BM in piano performance at Juilliard under the tutelage of Robert McDonald, where she also holds the Morton B. Knafel Scholarship.

About Yun-Chin Zhou

A native of Shenyang, China, pianist Yun-Chin Zhou, studies in the MM program with Robert McDonald at Juilliard. He also studied with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music. At Juilliard, he holds the Cecelia Felman Piano Scholarship and the Alice Weiner Scholarship in Classical Music.

Mr. Zhou has given recital debuts in New York at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall and in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center as part of the Young Concert Artists Series. He has also performed around the U.S., at Saint Vincent College, the Center for Arts in Natick, the Lied Center of Kansas, the Port Washington Library, the Jewish Community Alliance in Jacksonville, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Colgate University, Friends of Music, the Evergreen Museum and Library, Bedford Chamber Music Concert Series, and the Harriman-Jewell Series, among others. He has collaborated with Young Concert Artists performers, including in the Great Hall Series with violinist Paul Huang and at Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall with clarinetist Narek Arutyunian, with whom he appears again this season in concerts at the Morgan Library and Museum and the Oneonta Concert Association.

Mr. Zhou won first prize at the 2013 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, as well as the John Browning Memorial Prize, Ruth Laredo Memorial Award, the Slomovic Prize, and others. He also won first prize in the 2013 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition at Juilliard, which earned him a full scholarship and an appearance on WQXR. He won top prizes in the 2007 China International Piano Competition, the 2006 Gulangyu Piano Competition in Xiamen, the Busoni Piano Competition in Italy, and the Cleveland Piano Competition. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras throughout China, including the China National Symphony Orchestra in Beijing.

Photo credit: Peter Schaaf