Husband/Wife Piano Duo Concert

On Saturday, March 16, the International Piano Series is honored to present a free concert by distinguished pianists Robert Shannon and Haewon Song, in a duo-piano concert. The performance will take place at 6:00p.m. at the Recital Hall of the Simons Center for the Arts, 54 Saint Philip St. The husband and wife duo team are both professors at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and will be performing a two-piano program with music by Ravel, Liszt, Rachmaninoff and more. The concert is free and not to be missed!

Pianist Robert Shannon has presented solo recitals, ensemble concerts, and master classes throughout the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia. In recent seasons he has appeared in Beijing, London, Paris, Glasgow, Rome, Stuttgart, New York, San Francisco, Columbia (South America) and Taiwan. His repertoire ranges from Bach to Adams, and he has been especially noted for his recordings of Ives’ complete works for violin and piano, and works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Crumb, available on Bridge Records.

He is Professor of Piano at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Director of the Division of Keyboard Studies, and Director and Founder of the Cooper Competition at Oberlin, which in cooperation with the Cleveland Orchestra has become one of the most important youth competitions in the world.

Mr. Shannon earned a bachelor of music degree in piano performance at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and a bachelor of arts degree in music from Oberlin’s College of Arts and Sciences, although his original intention was to major in East Asian studies. He earned a master’s degree in piano performance at the Juilliard School. He has studied with Jack Radunsky, Ania Dorfmann, Dorothy Taubmann, and Vladimir Ashkenazy. He often performs duo recitals with his wife, Oberlin faculty colleague, Haewon Song.

Haewon Song is an active artist and pedagogue who has performed and taught worldwide. She has performed in France, Germany, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and throughout the United States. She has been a soloist with the K.B.S. Orchestra in Seoul, the Baltimore Symphony, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, Oberlin College Community Strings, and the Oberlin Wind Ensemble. Ms. Song has performed at Mexico’s Cervantino Festival, the All American Music Festival in Stuttgart Germany, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Aria Festival, the Institute of Musical Arts in Canada, the Festival de Nice in France, and the Oberlin Summer Piano Festival. Ms. Song toured South Korea as a member of the Oberlin Piano Quartet. She often appears in duo piano recitals with her husband Robert Shannon with whom she has recorded for Bridge Records.

She is now a founding member of the New Oberlin Trio.

Ms. Song studied at the Toho School in Tokyo, Peabody Preparatory School in Baltimore and the Juilliard School. Her major teachers were Shuku Iwasaki, Julian Martin, and Martin Canin. She has taught at Tunghai University in Taiwan, Kyung Won University in Seoul, and has been a member of the Oberlin Piano Department since 1993.

Ms. Song’s students often perform as concerto soloists with significant orchestras and her students have won major prizes in such competitions as the MTNA Nationals, Wideman, and Kingsville, as well as the Oberlin Summer Piano Competition.