Dr. Jeongwon Ham is an internationally acclaimed pianist and pedagogue, recognized for her exceptional commitment to student success and artistic excellence. A recipient of the University of Oklahoma’s prestigious Regent’s Award for Superior Teaching, she is known for cultivating highly accomplished, versatile pianists prepared for careers in performance, academia, and beyond.

 

Students in Dr. Ham’s studio benefit from a dynamic and supportive environment that emphasizes technical mastery, artistic individuality, and professional development. Her students have earned top prizes in regional, national, and international competitions and have gone on to secure faculty positions at leading institutions across the United States, Canada, and Asia, including the University of Alabama, the University of British Columbia, Bowling Green State University, the University of Houston, the University of Missouri–Columbia, the Northern Michigan University, the University of South Carolina, and Ewha Womans University, Jinju National University of Education, among others.

 

An active international performer, Dr. Ham appears regularly as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She has presented concerts, master classes, and lectures throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, with engagements at major festivals and conferences such as the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt (Austria), Festival Internazionale Incontri Musicali di Sorrento (Italy), World Piano Conference (Serbia), and the Asian International Piano Academy Festival and Competition. Recent highlights include performances at the Lindlar Piano Festival in Germany, a residency at Northern Michigan University, and concert tours in California, Vancouver, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore.

 

Her active performance career directly enriches her teaching, offering students valuable insight into the professional music world through mentorship grounded in current performance practice, international engagement, and real-world experience navigating the competitive music landscape.

 

Dr. Ham is a prize winner in several major international competitions, including the Bartók/Kabalevsky International Competition, Épinal International Competition, Paul Hindemith Competition, Artur Schnabel Competition, and Simone Belsky Competition. Her performances have been praised for their technical brilliance and expressive depth, with critics highlighting her “astonishing and effortless technique” and her "compelling combination of warmth and power."

 

In addition to her performance and teaching, Dr. Ham is in high demand as a juror for prestigious international competitions, including the Los Angeles Liszt International Piano Competition, the Bartók/Kabalevsky/Prokofiev International Piano Competition, and numerous Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) competitions at the state, divisional, and national levels. Her international reputation is further underscored by her selection for the “40 Faces–40 Years” exhibition at the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung’s anniversary convention in Germany, an honor bestowed on only forty individuals from a global pool of more than 6,800 scholarship recipients.

 

Dr. Ham’s academic and artistic training spans the United States and Europe. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Kansas and advanced performance degrees from the Universität der Künste in Berlin and the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. Her principal teachers include Sequeira Costa, Klaus Hellwig, Hans Leygraf, and Ludger Maxsein, and she has worked with many of the world’s leading pianists at international academies.

 

Through her multifaceted career as a performer, educator, and leader in the global piano community, Dr. Ham continues to shape the next generation of artists while maintaining a dynamic international presence.