Biography

Er-Gene Kahng has distinguished herself as a musician of the highest caliber.  Under the tutelage of Mark Kaplan, Erick Friedman, Syoko Aki and Almita Vamos at UCLA, Yale and Northwestern respectively, Kahng’s performances have earned her top prizes at The Young Artist Competition (The Philharmonic Society of Arlington, MA), The Carmel Music Society Instrumental Competition, The SAI Instrumental Competition (held at Chautauqua, NY), The Fort Collins Symphony Young Artist Competition, the UCLA Philharmonic Concerto Competition, and the R.D. Colburn School’s Orchestra da Camera Concerto Competition.  

Kahng has held title positions with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, as well as section positions with the Lancaster Symphony, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Waterbury Symphony, Eastern Connecticut Symphony, and Norwalk Symphony in Connecticut.  

Co-sponsored by the Council for Human Understanding in Los Angeles and Sanrio, Inc., Kahng served as a young ambassador to Japan visiting Tokyo, Hiroshima and Kyoto in April 1996, being the youngest ambassador to represent the United States. Other significant travels have included South Africa (Cape Town, Johannesburg, Swaziland, Pretoria) through the National Youth Leadership Forum, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti through the ACCORDS Arts Organization in California.  

Before joining the University of Arkansas in 2007, Kahng taught at the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, Connecticut.  Her students have gained admission to some of the top music schools in the country, including New England Conservatory, Peabody, University of Southern California, University of Minnesota, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, as well as being prizewinners of the MTNA regional and national level competition.