Album Notes

Aptly described as a rare combination of silk and sinew, Korean-American pianist SEUNG-UN HA is equally praised for the uncommon grace, crystalline tone and singing legato she brings to Mozart, and the power and passion she brings to Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky. Her international career includes engagements with the Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Quebec, San Diego, Baltimore, Utah, Phoenix, Pasadena and Pacific Symphonies and Tulsa Philharmonic; Florida Orchestra; Germany\'s Bremen Philharmonic, France\'s Orchestre Symphonique Français, Scotland\'s Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Mexico\'s Orquesta Sinfonica de Mineria and Mexico City Philharmonic; Buenos Aires\' Orquesta de Camara Mayo and the National Symphony of Taiwan. Festival invitations include New York\'s Chautauqua (Rachmaninoff #3 under Paul Nadler), \"Mostly Mozart,\" San Francisco\'s \"Midsummer Mozart,\" Ravinia and Aspen. She made her Hollywood Bowl and Los Angeles Philharmonic debuts, performing Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, Lawrence Foster conducting., and her Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra debut, Music Director Jeffrey Kahane conducting. Other conductors with whom Ms. Ha has collaborated include Zdenek Macal, Leonard Slatkin, Joseph Silverstein, Maximiano Valdes and George Cleve. She has also offered acclaimed recitals in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Philadelphia and Detroit.

Ms. Ha began her piano studies at age three in her native Korea, giving her first public recital two years later. At seven she placed First in Seoul’s National Youth Piano Competition; at ten she and her family came to the United States, settling in Southern California. Her U.S. orchestral debut was at age thirteen with the Santa Barbara Symphony; her auspicious New York orchestral debut was in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, Leonard Slatkin conducting the Juilliard Orchestra. Following studies with Reginald Stewart at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, she graduated from the Peabody Conservatory and The Juilliard School. Her teachers include Leon Fleisher, Martin Canin and John Perry.

The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, by J.S. Bach has long been a favorite of Ms. Ha\'s. Recorded in 2004 in brilliant stereo with paired Neuman TLM 170 microphones, but made available to the public only now in 2008, this performance of the Goldberg Variations by Seung-Un Ha is a must have for all collectors and connoisseurs of this timeless masterpiece.