Jun Hee Park, the acclaimed jazz pianist who built her career headlining major festivals and clubs in South Korea is now making her mark on the jazz scene in New York.
Jun Hee Park, the acclaimed jazz pianist who built her career headlining major festivals and clubs in South Korea is now making her mark on the jazz scene in New York.
Park was still in her twenties when she co-founded Jazz Deo in 2016, a Daejeon quartet built around her piano and arrangements. Within a year, the band was the go-to act at Yellow Taxi, the biggest jazz club in the city.
The band's calendar filled up fast after that. Jazz Deo took the Grand Prize in the band competition at the Haeundae Jazz Festival, one of Korea's most established jazz events, then came back the following year to headline the festival's signature "Jazz Falls in Love with Wine" concert series. They played the Buyeo Seodong Lotus Festival, a nationally recognized summer festival that draws more than 300,000 visitors a year. They placed third out of sixty bands in the Rotary Foundation's national band competition at the Gaecheon Arts Festival. They won another Grand Prize at the Busan Citizens Park Street Art Festival. This caught the attention of multiple Korean media outlets, which reported on their concerts, festivals, and awards.
By 2019, Park was leading her own project. She headlined a concert alongside renowned jazz bassist Eun-Chang Choi at Club Diva Janus in Seoul, a club founded in 1978 by Park Sung-yeon that's often described as one of the foundational rooms in modern Korean jazz. The club's history was significant enough to get its own documentary, which screened at the Jecheon International Music & Film Festival. That same year, Park recorded two singles with the duo Vin & Jun.
Then she moved her career to New York, and the bookings didn't slow down.
She has headlined concerts at the noted music venue Brvsh Cul7ur3 and the annual Christmas Benefit hosted by EnoB, one of New York's premiere live music production organizations specializing in benefits and concerts for those in need.
Bassist and composer F. August Bish, who has recording credits with Allison Miller, brought Park on as lead pianist and arranger for his upcoming projects, including an album called "Godbuster". Trombonist Laura Orzehoski, a William H. Borden Award winner who has performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Hall and the Kimmel Center, hired Park as lead pianist for her quartet, including a weekly residency at the Stonewall Inn.
Grammy-nominated percussionist Rogério Boccato hired Park as lead pianist for a run of New York dates including a stop at the Poster House Museum. And this fall, jazz artist Marty Scott brought her in for a quintet performance at the Django Jazz Club, the Roxy Hotel venue that's served as the New York home for the Mingus Big Band and hosted a month-long celebration marking Charles Mingus's centennial.
In addition to her club gigs, Park is an experienced music educator, having taught in Korea at the Daejeon Applied Music Academy, the Yaejong Applied Music Academy, and the GAM Applied Music Academy. Now, she will be bringing her talents to the ARK Music Vocal Academy and the Joy School of Music & Art in New Jersey.
Look at the run of credits together and a picture starts to form. Park keeps getting hired by bandleaders with serious reputations, and she keeps landing in venues that have real standing in their scenes, first in Korea and now in New York. She's built that résumé through steady work rather than a single big break, moving from a rehearsal room in Daejeon to a landmark stage in Greenwich Village over the course of about a decade. At this point in her career, she's not an up-and-comer anymore. She's someone other musicians actively seek out.
Park was still in her twenties when she co-founded Jazz Deo in 2016, a Daejeon quartet built around her piano and arrangements. Within a year, the band was the go-to act at Yellow Taxi, the biggest jazz club in the city.
The band's calendar filled up fast after that. Jazz Deo took the Grand Prize in the band competition at the Haeundae Jazz Festival, one of Korea's most established jazz events, then came back the following year to headline the festival's signature "Jazz Falls in Love with Wine" concert series. They played the Buyeo Seodong Lotus Festival, a nationally recognized summer festival that draws more than 300,000 visitors a year. They placed third out of sixty bands in the Rotary Foundation's national band competition at the Gaecheon Arts Festival. They won another Grand Prize at the Busan Citizens Park Street Art Festival. This caught the attention of multiple Korean media outlets, which reported on their concerts, festivals, and awards.
By 2019, Park was leading her own project. She headlined a concert alongside renowned jazz bassist Eun-Chang Choi at Club Diva Janus in Seoul, a club founded in 1978 by Park Sung-yeon that's often described as one of the foundational rooms in modern Korean jazz. The club's history was significant enough to get its own documentary, which screened at the Jecheon International Music & Film Festival. That same year, Park recorded two singles with the duo Vin & Jun.
Then she moved her career to New York, and the bookings didn't slow down.
She has headlined concerts at the noted music venue Brvsh Cul7ur3 and the annual Christmas Benefit hosted by EnoB, one of New York's premiere live music production organizations specializing in benefits and concerts for those in need.
Bassist and composer F. August Bish, who has recording credits with Allison Miller, brought Park on as lead pianist and arranger for his upcoming projects, including an album called "Godbuster". Trombonist Laura Orzehoski, a William H. Borden Award winner who has performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Hall and the Kimmel Center, hired Park as lead pianist for her quartet, including a weekly residency at the Stonewall Inn.
Grammy-nominated percussionist Rogério Boccato hired Park as lead pianist for a run of New York dates including a stop at the Poster House Museum. And this fall, jazz artist Marty Scott brought her in for a quintet performance at the Django Jazz Club, the Roxy Hotel venue that's served as the New York home for the Mingus Big Band and hosted a month-long celebration marking Charles Mingus's centennial.
In addition to her club gigs, Park is an experienced music educator, having taught in Korea at the Daejeon Applied Music Academy, the Yaejong Applied Music Academy, and the GAM Applied Music Academy. Now, she will be bringing her talents to the ARK Music Vocal Academy and the Joy School of Music & Art in New Jersey.
Look at the run of credits together and a picture starts to form. Park keeps getting hired by bandleaders with serious reputations, and she keeps landing in venues that have real standing in their scenes, first in Korea and now in New York. She's built that résumé through steady work rather than a single big break, moving from a rehearsal room in Daejeon to a landmark stage in Greenwich Village over the course of about a decade. At this point in her career, she's not an up-and-comer anymore. She's someone other musicians actively seek out.
