MIN KWON

ARTIST BIO

Distinguished by a wide expressive range and dazzling technique, Korean-born American pianist Min Kwon excels in a multifaceted career as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, artistic director, arts advocate, and educator. Through her projects and performances, Kwon is committed to expanding the piano repertoire, training and advocating for the next generation of classical music talent, and forging relationships across artistic disciplines. She has held professional engagements in over 60 countries and all 50 U.S. states.

In 2020, Kwon embarked upon her most ambitious project to date: America/Beautiful, a compendium of 76 solo piano variations on the patriotic song “America the Beautiful.” She commissioned 76 composers across the country, ages 21 to 96, from emerging young composers to Pulitzer Prize winners. Honoring America’s credo E Pluribus Unum, the project’s mission is to celebrate the cultural diversity within America, and to encourage a variety of voices to engage with the question: “What is America? Is it beautiful, was it ever, or will it ever be?” The individual pieces vary in tone, texture, and mood, but ultimately form a united whole — much like the United States of America.

Kwon began premiering the variations on the Fourth of July, 2021, in a series of streamed video performances and two nights of live concerts in New York. The project received national attention on NBC Nightly News, NPR’s All Things Considered, and in the Financial Times. In the 2025-26 season, to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Kwon performs selections from America/Beautiful live on tour, and the full set in a five-hour marathon at Rutgers University. Since the project began, Kwon has invited dancers, choreographers, and visual artists to create pieces to be showcased alongside the music. A five-disc box set — recorded by the late multi–Grammy-winning producer Adam Abeshouse — will be released on Delos in May 2026.

Kwon is founder and director of the Center for Musical Excellence (CME), a non-profit dedicated to mentoring and supporting gifted young artists with the mission of “Moving Musicians Forward.” Since its founding, the organization has awarded 12 international performing arts grants, each up to $10,000. CME alumni include more than 150 young artists from 25 countries who enjoy international careers such as Bomsori Kim, Brannon Cho, Graeme Steele Johnson, Reed Tetzloff, Eric Zuber, and Jack Gao. One of CME’s projects is the Vienna ConcertoFest, a two-week festival that provides extraordinary opportunities for young artists to appear as soloists with the Viennese International Orchestra in prestigious venues in Austria.

As a soloist, Kwon has performed extensively throughout Europe, the Americas, and Asia, including nationally televised concerts with all of Korea’s major orchestras. In the US, following her debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, she has appeared as a soloist at the Aspen and Brevard Music Festivals and with the North Carolina, Fort Worth, New Jersey and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras, and with many of New York’s leading ensembles. She has collaborated with distinguished conductors such as James Conlon, Alan Gilbert, Xian Zhang, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Vakhtang Jordania, Constantine Orbelian, Kynan Johns, and Gerhardt Zimmermann.

Equally comfortable in breadth of interests and styles, Kwon’s repertoire and advocacy have included notable premieres, including the East Coast premiere of a concerto by Grammy-winning composer Robert Aldridge at Alice Tully Hall, the Asian premiere of Paul Schoenfield’s Four Parables for Piano and Orchestra in Korea, and the world premiere of James Ra’s Fantasia on Sae Taryung, written for her and the New Jersey Symphony. Currently in the works is a new piano concerto written for her by MacArthur Fellow, jazz pianist, and composer Vijay Iyer.

An avid chamber musician, Kwon has performed in numerous duo and chamber recitals around the world, with her sister Yoon Kwon, a member of the first violin section of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and with principals of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Paris, and the Czech Philharmonic. She has also produced and performed in chamber music concerts with 10 principals of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Kwon’s recordings further reflect her affinity for creative programming. Her solo album Dance: Piano Music Through the Centuries (2019) features works by 19 composers that span 300 years. She has also produced several recordings as CME Presents, on which she performs alongside Center for Musical Excellence alumni; these include Piano Music of Paul Reale; The Art of Transcription, featuring popular chamber works and songs transcribed for keyboard; and Piano Celebration, Vol. 1, a joyous compilation of short piano works from Brahms to Henry Mancini.

Kwon has served on the faculty of Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts since 2002, where she is Professor of Piano and Head of Piano. She produces events such as Rutgers PianoFest and annual themed recitals at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall to celebrate piano artistry and showcase the talents of her students. Her studio has produced over 40 D.M.A. pianists and includes prize-winning performers, teachers, and arts leaders from more than 25 countries. She is regularly invited to lead masterclasses around the world, including in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Vienna, and London.

Kwon holds Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. She completed her post-doctoral studies in Salzburg. Her teachers and mentors include Eleanor Sokoloff, Martin Canin, Leon Fleisher, Hans Leygraf, Dorothy DeLay, Jerome Lowenthal, and Leif Ove Andsnes. Kwon is a Steinway Artist and lives in New Jersey with her two daughters and husband.

VIDEOS

Recordings