Seokyoung Hong at East Regional Library
Cliburn in the Community Spring 2024
Date: March 5, 2024 6:30 pm CST
Venue: East Regional Library
Bring your friends and family for a free performance by 2023 Cliburn Junior winner Seokyoung Hong!
This concert is presented in partnership with Fort Worth Public Library.
ABOUT SEOKYOUNG HONG, 2023 Cliburn Junior Winner
Winner of both the first prize and audience awards at the 2023 Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival, Seokyoung Hong impressed with playing “full of fire, intensity and musical precision” (Classic FM). Born in Seoul, he studied for two years at the Yewon School before moving to Boston in 2022 to work with HaeSun Paik at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School while also attending the Walnut Hill School for the Arts. He’s found himself inspired by his new environment: “Nature inspires me in various ways—its huge size, marvelous detail, the beauty of nature itself, and a lot more. For instance, the enormous entities like the ocean and the universe motivate me but also make me feel that I am only a small human.” He also finds inspiration and motivation from the two most recent winners of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, South Korea’s Yekwon Sunwoo and Yunchan Lim.
Seokyoung’s interest in composing leads him to constantly study, he says, but he also enjoys riding his bike, playing chess, and participating in the table tennis club at school. Before his Cliburn appearance, Seokyoung had several first or second-place finishes at international competitions in Korea, Switzerland, and the United States.