Min Kwon (born Kwon, Min-Kyung) is a Korean-American pianist[1] and professor of piano at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.[2]
Kwon began playing the piano at the age of 3, under the tutelage of her mother who ran a music school out of her home.[3] She also studied violin, cello, and choral singing. In the sixth grade Kwon decided to focus fully on piano.[3]
Kwon's family immigrated to Closter, New Jersey when she was 14 years old.[3][4] There, she received a full scholarship to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia,[5] and she made her North American debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of 16.[3]
After earning her Bachelor of Music Degree at the age of 19,[3] Kwon continued her studies at The Juilliard School with Martin Canin. She received MM and DMA degrees from Juilliard, and completed post-doctoral studies at the University of Mozarteum in Austria with Hanz Leygraf.[6]
As the winner of the Beethoven Competition, Kwon made her New York debut in 1992 with the Juilliard Orchestra at the Avery Fisher Hall of Lincoln Center.[6]
Kwon and her sister Yoon, a violinist, were the first Koreans to record for RCA Red Seal Records in 1996.[6] Kwon was Co‐Director of the Vienna ConcertoFest in Austria. From 2015 until 2018 she was on the Juilliard School Council in New York.[5][6]
Kwon became a professor of Piano at the Mason Gross School in 2002.[6]
Kwon is married to Leonard Lee, who is chairman of surgery at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.[4] The couple have two daughters.[7]