Alice Gi-Young Hwang (born 1991), also known as Nahre Sol, is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, pianist, and

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

Early life and education

Hwang attended the

Orange County High School of the Arts Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA, ), is a 7th–12th grade public charter school located in downtown Santa Ana, California. The school caters to middle and high school students with talents in the performing, visual, literary arts, cul ...

and graduated from the

Idyllwild Arts Academy Idyllwild Arts Academy is a private school located in Idyllwild, in the San Jacinto Mountains and San Bernardino National Forest, within western Riverside County, California. The school was founded in 1946. It was previously known as Idyllwil ...

in 2009, where she was class

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the class rank, highest-performing student of a graduation, graduating class of an academic institution in the United States. The valedictorian is generally determined by an academic institution's grade poin ...

and recipient of The Most Outstanding Arts Student award. She received her

Bachelor of Music A Bachelor of Music (BMus; sometimes conferred as Bachelor of Musical Arts) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. The degree may be awarded for performance, music ed ...

degree in piano performance from the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

in 2013, studying with

Matti Raekallio Matti Juhani Raekallio (born 14 October 1954 in Helsinki) is a Finnish pianist. Raekallio studied in Helsinki, in Vienna with , in London with Maria Curcio, and in Saint Petersburg. In 1996, his doctoral thesis at the Sibelius Academy was ''Sorm ...

. While at Juilliard, she co-founded the T.R.I.O. Project (Teaching and Responding Through Internet Outreach). She was a 2013 recipient of a

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

France Harriet Hale Woolley Award in the Arts Grant, allowing her to study in Paris with

Gabriel Tacchino Gabriel Tacchino (; 4 August 1934 – 29 January 2023) was a French classical pianist and teacher. Life and career Tacchino was born in Cannes on 4 August 1934. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conservatoire from 1947 to 1953, whe ...

and Narcis Bonet, pupils of

Francis Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include mélodie, songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among th ...

and

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher, conductor and composer. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organis ...

. In 2015, Hwang earned her

artist diploma An artist diploma (ArtDip or AD) is a non-degree graduate diploma, awarded to music students who demonstrate comprehensive performance skills in voice and/or a musical instrument. Generally consisting of a two- or three-year course of study, prog ...

from

The Glenn Gould School The Glenn Gould School is an elite institution for the training of professional musicians in performance at post-secondary and post-bachelor levels in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1987 and renamed in 1997 after the pianist ...

The Royal Conservatory of Music The Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM; ), branded as The Royal Conservatory, is a non-profit music education institution and performance venue headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1886 by Edward Fisher as The Toronto C ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Canada, studying with

John O'Conor John O'Conor (born 18 January 1947) is an Irish pianist and pedagogue, and former director of the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Early career Born in Dublin, O'Conor attended Belvedere College in that city. During his early Dublin studies, his ...

. In

, she was co-director of the

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

collective Happenstance. From 2017 to 2018, she was a New Music Fellow at the RCM. She also participated in master classes at the International Mendelssohn-Academy Leipzig and at the International Holland Music Sessions as a scholarship recipient. She also contributed a set of recordings of the Chopin Scherzos to

Musopen Musopen is an organization which creates, produces and disseminates Western classical music, via public domain recordings, sheet music and educational resources. It stands with the ChoralWiki and the Wind Repertory Project as among the most prom ...

's compilation of Chopin's works, which were released under a public domain license.

Recognition as Nahre Sol

After graduating from the Glenn Gould School, Hwang abandoned her traditional piano performance career, working for some time as a commercial photographer. She resumed her musical activities through a series of videos on YouTube under the title Practice Notes using the name Nahre Sol, a nickname her father used to call her. Nahre Sol is best known for her YouTube channel, with around 710,000 subscribers as of April 2024, and as being co-host of the

PBS Digital Studios PBS Digital Studios is a non-profit organization through which PBS distributes original educational web video content. Based in Arlington, Virginia, it comprises both original series and partnerships with existing YouTube YouTube is ...

show "Sound Field". She has also been a guest host o
MPR
s

Performance Today ''Performance Today'' is a classical music radio program, first aired in 1987 and hosted since 2000 by Fred Child. It is the most listened-to daily classical music radio program in the United States, with 1.2 million listeners on 237 stations. ...

, created a video for

Wired magazine ''Wired'' is a bi-monthly American magazine that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. It is published in both print and Online magazine, online editions by Condé Nast. The magazine has been in public ...

, appeared as a guest on the online channel

Physics Girl Dianna Cowern (born May 4, 1989) is an American science communicator and physicist who has created the YouTube channel ''Physics Girl'' since 2011. Her videos explain physical phenomena in everyday life using an informal, fast-paced style. She wo ...

, and collaborated with other composers and musicians such as David Bruce, Andrew Huang,

Adam Neely Adam Neely (born 1988) is an American bassist, YouTuber, and jazz musician based in New York City. His YouTube content includes Q&A videos, vlogs about performing music, and video essays about online music culture. As a musician, he performs wi ...

, L.A. Buckner, Tantacrul, and Ben Levin. She was nominated in the category Best YouTube Musician in the

12th Annual Shorty Awards The 12th Shorty Awards were held on May 3, 2020 via an online live stream event. The event was originally scheduled to be held at 1515 Broadway Theater in New York City, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was held virtually. The dig ...

in 2020. The blog Pianote featured her YouTube channel in 2021 as #1 on their list of top YouTube pianists. She was a guest artist at the 2018 Costa Rica Piano Festival. As a composer, Nahre Sol has had works commissioned by the

Manitoba Chamber Orchestra The Manitoba Chamber Orchestra (MCO) is a chamber orchestra based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It offers an annual subscription series at Westminster United Church, which regularly features Canada's leading soloists, such as James Ehnes and Meas ...

and her music was used in the film The Boss Baby: Family Business. In 2021, she released a digital album called ''Alice in Wonderland''. In June 2023, the

Elbphilharmonie The Elbphilharmonie (; "Elbe Philharmonic Hall"), popularly nicknamed Elphi, is a concert hall in the HafenCity quarter of Hamburg, Germany, on the Grasbrook peninsula of the Elbe River. The new construction resembles a hoisted sail, water wave ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

announced Nahre Sol as its first-ever 'Creator in Residence' for the 2023-2024 season.

Competitions and awards

Sol was the Gold Medal Winner of the NFAA YoungARTS program, a semi-finalist of the Presidential Scholars in the Arts Program, recipient of the Sarra and Emmanuil Senderov Award at Arizona State University for the “Most outstanding performance of a piece by a Russian composer” at the 3rd Schimmel USASU International Piano Competition, and won prizes at the “Tomorrow’s Stars” Competition held by the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the Spotlight Awards, the Idyllwild Arts Academy Concerto Competition, the Steinway Society of Redlands Piano Competition, the Young Artists Peninsula Music Festival, the Redlands Bowl Young Artists Auditions, the MTAC State Concerto Competition, and the 2008 Bronislaw Kaper Awards for Young Artists, She also was a contestant in such competitions as the William Kapell International Piano Competition and the 2015 National Chopin Competition in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

References

External links

* *
Nahre Sol's page
on

BandCamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

Nahre Sol's channel
on

SoundCloud SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is ...

Nahre Sol's channel
on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sol, Nahre American music YouTubers American women classical pianists American classical musicians American composers American contemporary classical composers American women classical composers American women composers Composers for piano 21st-century American classical composers 21st-century American classical pianists 21st-century American women pianists 21st-century American women musicians Women in classical music Juilliard School alumni The Royal Conservatory of Music alumni 1991 births Living people