Jooae Cheon - 2023 Award Winner 

Jooae Cheon has won numerous competitions from the time she started her professional piano studies in South Korea. She was a semi-finalist in the Washington International Competition in 2020, was a finalist in the Krannert Debut Artist Competition in 2022 and was a 2023 Artist Presentation Society winner

She has performed in concerts and recitals at Yamaha Hall in Korea, University Commons Concert House and KerryTown Concert House in Michigan, and Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Illinois, as well as in numerous masterclasses and festivals across the United States, Germany, Austria, and France with many world-renowned pianists, including 
Björn Lehmann.

Cheon earned her Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from Seoul National University in South Korea and she holds two Master of Music degrees in piano performance and chamber music from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. Currently, she is pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance and literature under the tutelage of Prof. Timothy Ehlen at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where she is the first recipient of the Franz Liszt Fellowship, the highest piano award at UIUC. Her teachers have also included Soo-Hee Auh, Prof. Hie-Yon Choi, Prof. Ian Hobson and Prof. Christopher Harding.

In addition to her studies, she is currently working as a piano instructor at the Illinois Community Music Academy.