Young-Ah Tak
Assistant Professor of Piano
Email Professor Tak

BM in piano performance, The Juilliard School
MM, Graduate Diploma in piano performance, New England Conservatory of Music

DMA (pending) in piano performance, The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

Biography
As a pianist with a "winning combination of passion, imagination, and integrity," according to the New York Concert Review, Young-Ah Tak is uniquely positioned to develop her Southeastern students into integrated artists with discipline, creativity, and individuality. Since making her New York debut at the Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall with the Juilliard Symphony, Tak has performed as a recitalist, a soloist, and a chamber musician in the United States, Canada, Austria, Germany, Italy, Korea and Japan, including broadcast performances on WQXR (New York), WFMT (Chicago), WBJC (Baltimore), and KBS (Korea).

Tak is the Silver Medal winner at the San Antonio International Piano Competition, where she also received the "Best Performance of a Classical Work" award. She is also the winner of the International Corpus Christi Young Artists' Competition, and top prize winner in numerous other competitions, including the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, the Valsesia-Musica International Piano Competition (Italy), the Missouri Southern International Piano Competition, and the Ettlingen International Piano Competition (Germany).

Tak's orchestral appearances have taken her all over the world, including appearances with the Filharmonia Pomorska (Poland), the Greater Lansing Symphony Orchestra, the Oltenia Philharmonic Orchestra (Romania), the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and the Korean Symphony Orchestra in her native Korea. Tak has performed in the prestigious venues of the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Jordan Hall in Boston, and the Myra Hess Recital Series in Chicago, and she has also appeared at the Ravinia Festival, the Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Banff Centre for the Arts.

An active chamber musician, Tak has collaborated with artists such as Robert Mann, Nicholas Mann, Bonnie Hampton and members of the Florestan Trio and Ma'a Lot Quintet. In addition, her debut recording of Judith Zaimont's "Wizards (2003)" was released from Albany Records to great critical acclaim. She is also a recipient of the New England Conservatory's Honors Ensemble Awards.

After taking her Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, she earned a master's degree with high distinction from the New England Conservatory, where she also earned her Graduate Diploma as a Presidential Scholar. Currently, Tak is pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. Her principal teachers were Leon Fleisher, Russell Sherman, Wha Kyung Byun, Martin Canin and Yong Hi Moon, and she always looks forward to sharing her experience, knowledge, and passion with her students at Southeastern, giving them the music that will resonate in them throughout their lives.

Tak's former teaching positions include the piano faculties of Peabody Institute's Preparatory Division and the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival's Young Artists Program. At Southeastern, Tak teaches applied piano lessons and serves as a member of the Southeastern Faculty Piano Trio. Her research and performance interests are in solo piano and chamber music literature, and her upcoming performances and recordings can be found on her Web site, www.youngahtak.com.