Previously based in Germany, South Korean pianist Chi Ho Han is associate professor of music in piano at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
Establishing his voice in German arts at age 20, Han claimed prizes at Beethoven competitions in Vienna and Bonn, and the Schubert competition in Dortmund.
In 2014, he won the ARD International Music Competition’s (Germany) Audience Award and Best Performance on Commissioned Work, first prize at the Seoul International Music Competition (South Korea), and the silver medal at the Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition (U.S.). In 2016, he won fourth prize at the Queen Elisabeth International Competition (Belgium), and in 2022, he won third prize and the Isang Yun Prize at the Orléans International Piano Competition (France) on contemporary art music.
An active soloist and creative programmer, Han has performed to critical acclaim at the Seoul Arts Center Symphony Festival, Festival Internazionale di Musica da Camera di Cervo, International Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Kissinger Sommer International Music Festival, International Rheingau Music Festival, International Bodensee Music Festival, Lake Como Piano Festival, Musikdorf Ernen, and Deer Valley Music Festival.
With a broad range of orchestral repertoire, from the complete Beethoven concertos and romantic standards to contemporary works, Han has collaborated with the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, National Orchestra of Belgium, Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, Köln Sinfonietta, Lviv National Philharmonic, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra of Marseille, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, and Utah Symphony Orchestra.
Han was appointed artist-in-residence for the 2023-24 season in Budapest in collaboration with the Budapest Music Center and the Korean Cultural Center. During his residency, he was praised by composer György Kurtág and has been mentored by him since.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1992, Han studied in Essen with Arnulf von Arnim and earned a master’s degree (2017) and soloklasse (2021) from the University for Music, Theater and Media in Hannover, Germany, under Arie Vardi. Han also studied at the International Lake Como Piano Academy with William Grant Nabore, Fou Ts’ong, Dang Thai Son, and Dmitri Bashkirov, among others.
