The public is invited to a Beethoven and Shubert recital presented by pianist Borah Kang at 2:30 p.m. April 24 in the Grace Village Chapel. Kang was born in South Korea in 1979. Since she started piano at the age of 3, she has had many musical achievements. In 1991, she won the National Young Artist Piano Competition in Chun-An, South Korea, and then won second prize at the Chung-Nam National Student Music Competition in 1992. Additionally, she was invited by the Paeck-Chai Cultural Organization as a piano soloist in 1993. She won second prize in the National Student Music Competition, presented by Mokwon University in 1996, and was given Mokwon University performance scholarship in full. During Kang’s college years, the Young College Musician Association also appointed her as a soloist in 2000. She graduated from Mokwon University summa cum laude in 2001. After she came to the U.S. in 2002, she studied music at the Cleveland Institute of Music. During this time, she taught at the summer music festival International Institute for Young Musician at Kansas University in Lawrence. When she received her masters of music degree in 2006, she was also awarded the William Kurtzvan Piano Award. In the same year, she was also awarded the Sherrill Lambert Award at the Masterworks Festival in Indiana. In 2006, Kang started a doctoral degree program in piano performance at the University of Illinois, receiving the Langford Keyboard Fellowship. In 2007, she won the International Concerto Competition presented by the Masterworks Festival and performed with the Festival Symphony Orchestra. In this year, she had some master classes with the world-famous pianists Nelita True and Murray Perahia. She gave many recitals in Illinois area, including the Lake View Musical Society in Chicago, and Stateline Music Foundation in Freeport. Since 2011, she has been invited as a guest artist at the Grace Village Retirement Home in Indiana, Windsor of Savoy, Ill., and the Mils Breast Cancer Institute at Carle Foundation Hospital. She received a doctoral degree in piano performance at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in 2014. Kang also has various teaching experiences. During the 2008-2009 academic year, Kang taught group piano classes as a teaching assistant at the University of Illinois School of Music. She taught about 70 students piano and music theory, and currently is teaching students with special needs. She has also served many churches as a pianist and a music director. She is now very active in solo performance, accompanying and chamber music around the entire Illinois area, and a pianist in Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church. She is also the head teacher of Psalmers Music Academy in Urbana, Ill., where she specializes in teaching students with special needs. Recently, she also became a member of the hospice care team at the Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana Illinois. Her teachers include Timothy Ehlen, Kenneth Drake, Daniel Shapiro and Joseph Plon (1934- 2008).
