Sojung Lee Hong, D.M.A.

Sojung Lee Hong is a concert pianist, educator, and advocate for community music whose work centers on performance as a catalyst for cultural diversity, social connection, and public imagination. A graduate of Seoul National University (B.M. and M.M.) and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (Doctor of Musical Arts), she has performed widely across South Korea and the United States, appearing on leading stages including the Seoul Arts Center and Hoam Arts Hall, as well as throughout the greater Chicago area.

Dr. Hong’s educational leadership is grounded in expanding access to high-quality music learning. She founded the annual Open Future Concerts, a scholarship fundraising series benefiting gifted students with financial need. Her commitment to cultural diplomacy led her to develop two acclaimed concert series—Mozart in the Morning and The Classic Concert—at the Korean Cultural Center of Chicago, bringing classical music into civic and multicultural spaces.

Guided by a philosophy of servant leadership, Dr. Hong has organized numerous benefit concerts for schools and community organizations across the Chicago region. Her global outreach includes music initiatives in Cambodia and Peru, where she introduced live classical performance to underserved audiences, demonstrating music’s power to inspire, comfort, and unite communities.

As an artist-scholar, Dr. Hong explores the confluence of Eastern and Western musical traditions, an inquiry reflected in her two CD albums From East to West and Rhythms of Korea, both supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council. She currently serves as Professor of Music and Director of the Master of Music in Community Music program at Judson University in Elgin, Illinois, where she continues to champion music as a vehicle for social change through performance, teaching, and research.