Beethovenian Artist Mentors

Dr. Hyun-Jeong Ahn is an accomplished soloist and chamber musician whose performances have taken her across the United States, Europe, and Korea. She has appeared at distinguished venues including Carnegie Hall, Brahms House in Baden-Baden, Palffy Palace in Prague, and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. A prizewinner of numerous international competitions, she received First Prize and the Best Schubert Award at the Carles & Sofia International Piano Competition, top prizes at the Artciál and Pacific Stars International Piano Competitions, and the Clara Ascherfeld Award upon graduation from the Peabody Conservatory. Dr. Ahn earned her Bachelor of Music from Seoul National University, her Master of Music and Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory, and her Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is co-founder of Duo Nova and currently serves on the faculty of San Diego State University Community Music School and Grossmont College.

Chinese-born pianist Yang Gao is praised for performances that blend emotional depth with refined musical insight, described as playing "with exuberance, graced with a sensitive touch and eloquent articulations." He is the First Prize winner of the Harrison Winter Concerto Competition and a Silver Medalist at the Wideman International Piano Competition, and has competed at the Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw and the Leeds International Piano Competition, among others. Gao has been featured on WQXR Classical Music Radio and appeared in Portland Piano International's Rising Star Series, with performances at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and as soloist with Camerata NY Orchestra and the Peabody Concert Orchestra. He is a fellowship recipient of both the Gilmore Piano Festival and Bowdoin International Music Festival. Currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts at the Peabody Conservatory under HieYon Choi, Gao also studies with Awadagin Pratt and Vladimir Feltsman, and founded the Lyra Concert Series in 2026.

Derek Hartman is an award-winning pianist and dedicated educator. He received First Prize in the Seventeenth International Beethoven Competition Vienna in 2025; he is the only American-born musician to win top honors in the competition’s sixty-year history. He has also won prizes in the Washington International Piano Competition, Chicago International Music Competition, PianoArts North American Competition, and MTNA Young Artist Piano Competition. He has appeared as a soloist with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and Clara Schumann Philharmonic, and has performed at venues including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and the Musikverein in Vienna. In 2025, he was named a Bösendorfer Young Artist. An active chamber musician, he has collaborated with Jordan Bak and András Adorján and performed at the Bowdoin International Music Festival. His work includes contemporary music and premieres in Yale’s New Music New Haven series. Since 2024, Hartman has served as Lecturer of Piano at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. He is a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at the Yale School of Music, where he studies with Boris Slutsky. His teachers include Wei-Yi Yang, James Giles, and Paul Wirth.

Nabeel Hayek is an acclaimed pianist and the First Prize laureate of the 23rd José Iturbi International Piano Competition in València, Spain. His distinguished career includes solo performances with major Israeli orchestras and international recitals across Europe, Asia, and the United States. As a soloist, Nabeel has appeared with the Orquestra de València, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Israel Symphony Orchestra – Rishon Lezion, and the Galilee Chamber Orchestra. He has been an active participant in prestigious festivals such as the Bowdoin International Music Festival and the Lieven Piano Foundation in Vienna. Beyond his solo endeavors, Nabeel is a dedicated chamber musician, collaborative pianist, and educator. As a Christian Arab citizen of Israel, he strives to bridge the gap between his community and the world of classical music. Nabeel holds degrees from the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Tel Aviv University, and The Juilliard School, where he is currently pursuing his Doctorate of Musical Arts. Since 2017, he has received invaluable mentorship from Maestro Murray Perahia.

Pianist Seolyeong Jeong has established an international presence as both a soloist and chamber musician. Since her solo debut at Kumho Art Hall in Seoul at age thirteen, she has appeared at venues including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Seoul Arts Center, and Morse Recital Hall at the Yale School of Music. As a concerto soloist, she has performed with the Carlisle Chamber Orchestra, the Shepherd School Chamber Orchestra at Rice University, and the Beth El Temple Orchestra, among others. Her honors include First Prize at the 2023 American Virtuoso International Music Competition, First Prize and Audience Choice Prize at the 2022 Young Texas Artists Music Competition, and winner of the 2022 Shepherd School Concerto Competition. Seolyeong graduated summa cum laude from Seoul National University and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from Rice University. Her principal teachers include HieYon Choi, Peter Frankl, Hung-Kuan Chen, and Jon Kimura Parker. She has taught piano studios at Yale University and Rice University, served as a collaborative pianist at the New England Conservatory, the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and MIT, and held an adjunct faculty position at the University of Tampa. She serves as Executive Director of Beethovenian Collective and is currently based in the Twin Cities, Minnesota.

Kyoungsun Park is a pianist based in the United Kingdom whose work spans established repertoire and lesser-known works, combining performance with programming, arrangement, and recording. He studied at Seoul National University with Prof. Hie-Yon Choi, the Royal College of Music with Prof. Dmitri Alexeev, the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München with Prof. Michael Schäfer, and completed the Konzertexamen at the Universität der Künste Berlin with Prof. Markus Groh. His competition honors include Second Prize at the Isang Yun International Competition, Third Prize and the Horowitz Prize at the Horowitz Competition Kyiv–Geneva, Second Prize at the Singapore International Piano Competition, First Prize at the Artur Schnabel Competition, and First Prize and the Audience Prize at the München Gasteig Music Prize. He has appeared as a soloist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchester de la Suisse Romande, the Mihail Jora Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Seoul National University Symphony Orchestra, where he made his concerto debut performing a jazz-inspired cadenza of his own composition. He performs regularly across Europe and Korea.

Reed Tetzloff has been hailed for his "richly communicative" performances and "magical tone" (The Cincinnati Enquirer). Since coming to international attention as the "lyric hero of the XV Tchaikovsky Competition" (Сноб Magazine), he has been lauded for his "artistic intelligence, immaculate technique, and daredevil bravura" (South Florida Classical Review). He has launched a major recording collaboration with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Luxembourg Philharmonic on the French label Aparté, and has recorded the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra under Paweł Kapuła, earning five-star reviews in Diapason and Classica. Past orchestral engagements include the Cincinnati Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Prague Philharmonic, and he has performed at venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, Hamburg's Laeiszhalle, and the Seoul Arts Center. Born in Minneapolis, Tetzloff studied with Dr. Paul Wirth and holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Mannes College. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts at the Peabody Institute under Richard Goode.