Jeongwon Ham,
Pianist
Regent's Award short bio
Jeongwon Ham, School of Music, Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts
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Jeongwon Ham has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and a master teacher in several European countries, Asia and the United States. She has won top prizes at numerous international piano competitions; given master classes and taught as a guest professor in the United States, Europe and Asia at universities and summer festivals; and is highly sought-after as a juror for piano competitions.
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Since joining the OU music faculty in 2002, Ham has consistently demonstrated the ability to establish a supportive and nurturing rapport with her students and develops uniquely personalized teaching strategies that work most effectively for each student. One of her former students writes, “From my first lesson with Dr. Ham, I knew there was something special about her teaching. ... Because I found studying with her to be incredibly motivating, each lesson I arrived fully prepared to perform, and yet, Dr. Ham was able to take my performances and make them even better.”
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All of Ham's piano students improve, thrive and succeed, no matter their level of performance at the beginning of their time spent under her tutelage. The list of potential students who wish to study with her is long; in fact, when incoming students list their preferences as to their desired instructor, Ham is consistently the most requested professor in the piano area.
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Ham's former and current students frequently distinguish themselves as winners at international, national and regional competitions and hold teaching positions in the United States, Canada, Taiwan and Korea. About 40 of her students have received first prize at state, regional, national and/or international competitions. Her students have gone on to secure academic piano teaching positions at such institutions as Bowling Green State University, the University of Houston, the University of Northern Iowa, Los Angeles Harbor College, Oklahoma City University, Ohio University, and Ewha Womans University and the Korean National Arts University in Seoul, South Korea.
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Ham's reputation as an exemplary teacher extends far beyond the OU Norman campus. In 2018, she received the United States Virtuoso Artists International Piano Competition's “Extraordinary Achievement in the Field of Teaching Music” award, and she has been invited to teach master classes in China, Korea, Germany, Austria and France, as well as at institutions spanning the United States.