Caroline Hong

Dr. Caroline Hong, artist-teacher, holds degrees from the Peabody Institute, the Juilliard School, and Indiana University.  She maintains a successful balance between a performing career and as piano faculty at The Ohio State University School of Music.   Dr. Hong is active as a guest lecturer, adjudicator, and master class teacher at universities, institutions, and competitions throughout the United States, particularly in the Northeast, and internationally in Asia.  In addition to being asked to serve on faculty at the Schlern and Saarburg summer festivals, she has accepted an appointment at the Vianden International Chamber Music Festival in August 2013.

Caroline Hong has received critical acclaim as soloist with symphonies in the nation including Utah, Richmond, and Columbus Symphonies.  As winner of the Chicago Civic Orchestra Soloist Competition, she made her debut in Orchestra Hall in a performance of Sergei Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto under the baton of Michael Morgan.  She is a Laureate of the Van Cliburn International Audition, the Robert Casadesus International Competition, William Kapell International Piano Competition, UNISA International Piano Competition, Beethoven Foundation, and was also selected to compete in the Montréal International Piano Competition.  She made her debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall as the winner of the Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition (NY), and has won other prizes, including Distinguished Performer of the Palm Beach International Piano Competition, 1st prize in both Society of American Musicians (Chicago, IL) and Music Academy of the West Competition (Santa Barbara, CA).  In her pre-college days, she was named Orange County's Best Pianist, and was a top winner in the Bach Festival of Southern California.  She has been a featured performer on Robert Sherman's "Young Artists Showcase" (New York Times Radio) and numerous other radio broadcasts throughout the nation as well as abroad in Pretoria, South Africa. 

Hong was recognized as "one of the greatest pianists I have ever heard" by the Pulitzer Prize and Academy award-winning composer John Corigliano after her performance of his Etude Fantasy (1976).  The Columbus Dispatch wrote of the same performance that it was "breathtaking" and "hard to imagine a better performance."  She has also been praised by critics for her "expressive and powerful playing," "formidable technique" (Richmond Times Dispatch), as well as her "keen sense of lyricism and the classical style."  As a chamber musician and collaborator, she has performed with well-known groups such as the Vermeer String Quartet and the Dorian Wind Quintet.  She is an associate musician functioning as the principal keyboardist of the Columbus Symphony.   She is a Steinway Artist and member of the American Liszt Society, and has recorded for Mark Records and Fleur de Son which was reviewed favorably by American Record Guide.

Prior to her appointment at Ohio State in 1997, Dr. Hong served as an associate instructor in both piano and theory at Indiana University, as well as assistant professor at Longwood University.  She was appointed the first female piano faculty in 2005 for the "Piano at Peabody" program where she returns every summer.  Dr. Hong is a well-established doctoral advisor and thus her advisees have come to her from prestigious institutions including Indiana University, Cleveland Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Seoul National University, Mozarteum (Salzburg, Austria), and the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.  After becoming a mother in 2011, she has recommitted to specializing in undergraduate teaching as well, and to that end is developing a publication, Creative Technique, designed with college students’ needs at the undergraduate level in mind.  Her graduate class continues to flourish alongside her renewed attention to the undergraduate population at OSU.  Dr. Hong has an impressive list of 18 DMA graduates, with seven student winners of the OSU DMA Concerto Competition, and two DMA Document Award winners:

Dr. Chllung Wel Chou 1998
Dr. Hee Chung 2002
Dr. Min Jung Cho 2002
Dr. Yung Ching Yang 2002
Dr. Eun Kyoung Yang 2003 (DMA Concerto Competition Winner)
Dr. Na Young Kim 2004 (DMA Document Award)
Dr. Yungjen Chen 2006 (DMA Concerto Competition Winner)
Dr. Junghwa Lee 2008
Dr. Ryan Behan 2009 (DMA Concerto Competition Winner)
Dr. Sujin Kim 2009
Dr. Seonok Phoebe Kim 2010 (DMA Concerto Competition Winner)
Dr. Lin-San Chou 2010
Dr. Mei-Hsuan Huang 2010 (DMA Concerto Competition Winner)
Dr. Hye Kyung Liz Yoon 2010
Dr. Joseph Van Dyke 2011 (DMA Document Award)
Dr. Rina Shimizu Grow 2011
Dr. Kyounglae Gina Kang 2011 (DMA Concerto Competition Winner)
Dr. Jiyoung Park 2012