Bach’s Goldberg variations to be performed by Whang at Cameron

J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations are often considered the most difficult work written for the keyboard. They will be the focus of a faculty recital later this month by Cameron University music professor Dr. Hyunsoon Whang set for at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15 in the University Theatre, 27th and A Avenue in Lawton.

Pianists and harpsichordists love and admire this iconic work greatly - but also dread the difficulty of it - Whang noted.

"I am in awe of each variation and how this 75-minute work can transform us to a realm of meditation, contemplation, and endless imagination," Whang said. "Bach himself simply described Goldberg Variations in his 1741 manuscript as a work 'composed for music-lovers to refresh their spirits.'"

Built on a simple aria, Bach wrote 30 variations demonstrating his incomparable compositional tour de force drawing on all current styles. There are lyrical variations, dance-like ones, fugues, virtuosic ones and even a French overture - all written within the frame of a simple harmonic progression based on the original aria.

According to the 1802 biography of Bach by Forkel, the work was commissioned by a Russian diplomat-nobleman Count Keyserlingk to ease his insomnia caused by ill-health. The count's court harpsichordist, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, would play these variations in the next room through the night to ease his master's insomnia, hence the title "Goldberg Variations."

Korean-American pianist Whang began her piano studies at age four and has performed in Europe, Canada, Australia, Asia and across most of the U.S.

She studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts, the St. Louis Conservatory, Juilliard, and received a doctorate from Indiana University under the tutelage of a legendary pianist György Sebők. She is on faculty at Cameron, where she holds the McMahon Endowed Chair in Music.

Equally versatile as a soloist and a chamber musician, Whang has collaborated with noted musicians including Alexis Weissenberg, Leonard Slatkin, Joel Revzen, Miriam Burns, Jon Kalbfleisch, Michael Tree, David Kim, and her cellist sister Pegsoon Whang. Her most recent recording of late Brahms works for solo piano, "Opus 119" and "Clarinet Sonatas, Opus 120" with clarinetist Daniel McKelway, was released in 2024.

A dedicated educator, Whang has taught and nurtured generations of piano students. Her former students are active performers, educators and church musicians the world over. She has given masterclasses in several countries and adjudicated numerous competitions including the final round of the 2016 Music Teachers National Association's Performance Competition during its 150th national conference in Chicago.

She regularly presents interactive recitals for rural schoolchildren, fostering a love of classical music in the youth. She recently completed performing all of Beethoven's 32 sonatas and now tackles Bach's Goldberg Variations.

Whang is on the roster of Oklahoma Touring Artist and is a frequent guest artist with Florida Chamber Music Project. She is a recipient of the 2010 Oklahoma Governor's Arts in Education Award and the 2025 Oklahoma Music Teachers Association's Distinguished Teacher Award.

During summers she teaches at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. Besides teaching and playing the piano, she enjoys reading, traveling, yoga, and being a supermom to her veterinarian daughter Courtney and Callie, a Pitbull mix rescue.

Tickets for the recital are $10 for adults and $8 for senior citizens, members of the military and non-CU students. Cameron University students, faculty and staff receive one free admission with their CU I.D.

Tickets can be reserved by calling the box office at 580-581-2346. Tickets can also be purchased in advance online at https://www.cameron.edu/art-music-and-theatre/events/buy-tickets. (Taxes and processing fees apply.)

PR#26-118