South Korean pianist Seonghyeon Leem gave her European debut at the Mozarthaus Concert Hall in Vienna and has since performed at renowned venues including the Salzburg Festival, the Salle Cortot in Paris, the Arsenal in Metz, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and on MDR television in Leipzig. Her recent eengagements include solo recitals and orchestral performances across Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, China, South Korea, and beyond. 

Leem is the First Prize winner of the International Piano Competition Istanbul Orchestra’Sion 2022 and a recipient of the International Pro Musicis Award 2023. She has also received prizes at the ZF Musikpreis Competition 2024, the 66th International Gian Battista Viotti Competition, the Moscow International Piano Open Competition 2017, the International Piano Competition Clamo Music 2021, and the International Rosario Marciano Piano Competition 2015. 

She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras such as the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the Mozarteum University, the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Musical Comedy Leipzig, the Philharmonic Orchestra Zabrze, the Orchestra’Sion Istanbul, the Orchestra Giocoso Aix-en-Provence, and the Gunpo Prime Philharmonic Orchestra, collaborating with conductors including Ion Marin, Hankyeol Yoon, Matthias Foremny, Mariusz Smolij, Orçun Orçunsel, Alexander Drčar, Sławomir Chrzanowski, and Jakyung Year, among others. 

Leem completed her bachelor’s degree with distinction at Seoul National University, where she studied with Prof. Aviram Reichert. She received her master’s and postgraduate degrees under Prof. Jacques Rouvier at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and completed her Meisterklassenexamen at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig under Prof. Christian A. Pohl, where she also worked as his teaching assistant.

Important mentors for Seonghyeon Leem include Paul Gulda and Eunju Heo, and she also studied with Seunghye Choi and Jiwon Park in Seoul. She has gained artistic inspiration through masterclasses with renowned musicians such as Paul Badura-Skoda, Menahem Pressler, Arie Vardi, Elisabeth Leonskaja, and Maxim Vengerov. 

As a dedicated educator, she has given masterclasses in Toulouse and Hamburg and served as a jury member at the ZF Musikpreis Competition and the MaiFestival Competition. She was also a faculty member at the Musica Mundi Festival in 2022 and 2023. Leem is a scholarship recipient of the Elfrun Gabriel Foundation 2023/24 and a member of the New Leipzig Chopin Society.

Since October 2025, she has been teaching piano at the University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig.