Dr. Kim Bo Kyung, Director
Dr. Kim Bo Kyung received her Doctoral degree in piano performance from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to that, she obtained a master’s degree in piano pedagogy and piano performance from the University of Wisconsin at Madison where she worked as a Teaching Assistant and was chosen as a member of Pi Kappa Lambda (National Music Honor Society), and a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Eastern Michigan University. She is a recipient of the Dean’s honor, numerous scholarships, and awards such as the Jacobson’s scholarship and Music Awards.
Dr. Kim has given many solo, duo, and chamber recitals in the US, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Russia, Germany, Rumania, Turkey, Malaysia and Singapore.
She has taught piano pedagogy at several universities in South Korea, and has given presentations at conferences and articles for music journals/magazines. She has been invited as a piano faculty member at the Euro Art Music Festival in Germany, Piano Island Festival in Singapore, and the Asia International Piano Academy Festival (AIPAF) since 2011 in Korea. She has been an adjudicator at many competitions such as Singapore International Piano Competition, Singapore Golden Lion Awards International Music Arts Festival, and Singapore Raffles International Music Festival. Previously she served as Head of the Music Department at University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Currently she is based in Singapore, she is a piano faculty at the School of the Arts (SOTA) and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), and also runs a KBK Music Studio.
Dr. Nicholas Ong
Praised by the New York Times for his “firm rubber-ball touch and bounce” and by Le Figaro for his “astonishing virtuosity,” pianist Dr. Nicholas Ong is an internationally acclaimed artist whose performances have captivated audiences across the United States, Europe, and Asia. A prizewinner at numerous international competitions, he received First Prize at the Yvonne Lefébure International Piano Competition in France and was a finalist at the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Switzerland.
Dr. Ong has performed at leading venues including Alice Tully Hall and Miller Theatre in New York, Salle Gaveau and Salle Cortot in Paris, the Seoul Arts Center, the Tainan Cultural Centre and Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore. His festival appearances include the Castleton Festival, Focus! Festival (New York), Chopin Festival (Paris), Festival de l’Orangerie, Jeunes Pianistes Virtuoses (Lyon), Piano en Saintonge (Cognac), and the Villa Medici Festival in Rome. A passionate advocate for contemporary music, he has also appeared at the Soundbridge Contemporary Music Festival, the China-ASEAN Contemporary Music Festival, the Salihara International Performing-Arts Festival in Jakarta, and the Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival in the United States.
Dr. Nicholas Ong earned his Doctor of Musical Arts from The Juilliard School, where he studied under Robert McDonald. He also attended the École Normale de Musique de Paris on a French Government Scholarship and received his Master of Music from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. He currently serves as Head of Keyboard at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Singapore. and is regularly invited as guest faculty and jury member for major piano festivals and competitions across Asia.
Hayoung Lee
Hayoung Lee is a Singapore-based pianist, collaborator, and educator.
She earned a Master of Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Texas State University, where she studied with Dr. Jason Kwak. In recognition of her academic and artistic excellence, she received the Outstanding Graduate Student Award and the Outstanding Piano Achievement Award. At Texas State, she held a dual Graduate Teaching Assistantship as instructor of record for class piano and taught piano technique to undergraduate non-keyboard students, alongside her role as program coordinator for the FunKey Piano Project, a community-based outreach initiative providing accessible piano education to K-12 students in San Marcos, Texas, where she led program administration, coordinated student recitals, and group music classes.
As a soloist, Lee made her debut in 2024 with the Texas State Symphony Orchestra as winner of the annual Texas State Concerto and Aria Competition. Her collaborative work spans choirs, wind ensembles, orchestras, and a wide range of instrumentalists and vocalists. She served as pianist for the Texas State Wind Symphony, performing at the 2024 Texas Music Educators Association Convention and the 2025 College Band Directors National Association Conference. She continues her ensemble work in Singapore as a musician of The Philharmonic Wind Orchestra.
Her scholarly work centres on performance and pedagogy, with emphasis on intercultural piano education and early technique development. She has presented at conferences across Singapore, the United States, Malaysia, and Germany, including the 14th MTNA Collegiate Symposium, the 2nd International Pre-Graduate Conference for Music Research, and the 4th UCSI University Piano Pedagogy Conference.
Lee holds a Bachelor of Education with First Class Honours from the Royal College of Music and a Diploma in Music from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. She is an alumna of the School of the Arts, Singapore, where she currently serves on the music faculty.
Samuel Pang En
Samuel Pang En 彭恩 is the first Singaporean to be admitted to the renowned piano pedagogy program at the University of Oklahoma (OU), with dual Full Graduate Teaching Assistantships. He is a PhD student in piano pedagogy and music education, and an instructor of record for aural skills, as well as a teaching assistant in music theory. He continues to teach pre-college piano through the OU Beginning Piano. In 2026, he earned a MM in piano performance and pedagogy while serving as instructor of record for secondary applied piano and group piano class. He was recently awarded the Genevieve Vliet Piano Scholarship, the Marjorie Martin Caylor Memorial Scholarship, the Music Activities Scholarships, and the Robberson Research Grant.
His scholarly work has been published in Behavioural Sciences, MTNA e-Journal, and Proceedings of The Piano Conference: NCKP 2025. He has presented at the 3rd UCSI Piano Pedagogy Conference, the 14th MTNA Collegiate Chapter Symposium, the 14th International Conference for Research in Music Education, the OMTA State Conference, and The Piano Conference: NCKP 2025.
As a pianist, he was selected by Ursula Oppens to receive mentorship after his performance at the Nanyang International Music Competition. That year, at the Nanyang International Piano Academy Competition, he was recognized as one of the top scorers and received mentorship from You Xi. He has also performed in masterclasses by Lilya Zilberstein, Claudius Tanski, Andrzej Pikul, Melody Quah, and Louis Schwizgebel.
Samuel’s principal teachers include Jeongwon Ham, Kim Bo Kyung, Rena Phua, and Nellie Seng for piano; Sara M. Ernst and Julie Tan for piano pedagogy; and Rebecca Kan and Miranda Francis for research. He has also received coaching in piano from Hwaen Ch'uqi, Penelope Roskell, and Loo Bang Hean.
In Singapore, he earned a BEd (piano pedagogy) with first-class honours from the Royal College of Music, London, supported by the NAFA Scholarship and the Shariff-Vaidhya Arts Scholarship at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). There, he was conferred the Best Graduate Award (BEd) and became the first-ever recipient of The NAFA President’s Award (Degree) in 2024.