Hyun Sook Tekin was born in Daegu, South Korea. Her musical studies began at the age of six with private piano lessons. Between 1989 and 1994 she won first prize on several occasions at the Young Pianist Competition in Daegu. In 1996 she achieved the highest mark in the entrance examinations of Kyungpook National University – College of Fine Art and Music and consequently gained the Special Scholarship of the Rector. As a student of Prof. Jung she attended Music College of Kyungpook National University in Daegu, beginning in 1996 and graduating from the Piano Department with Bachelor’s degrees in both Piano Performance and Music Pedagogy in 2000. During her graduate education she accompanied for several professional opera societies, such as Opera Young Nam at Daegu, and performed in various chamber ensembles on the piano. Most of these concerts were broadcast by the South Korean Television.

In 2000 she moved to Germany where she was trained in Berlin under Prof. Erber. Between 2001 and 2004 she studied with the famous pianist Prof. Klaus Schilde, who was a pupil of Walter Gieseking and Marguerite Long – at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar and received a Master’s degree in February 2004. During this period she studied Chamber Music with Prof. Beetz (Abegg Trio). She also completed masterclasses with Prof. Karajewa (Vienna), Prof. Schirmer (Mannheim), Prof. Kehrer (Zürich), and Prof. Mia Paul (University of North Texas).

Between 2004 and 2010 she continued her piano studies as a doctorate student at MIAM (Center for Advanced Studies in Music) of Istanbul Technical University (ITU) in Türkiye with the acclaimed pianist and State Artist Ayşegül Sarıca, completing her PhD thesis on R. Schumann’s miniature piano pieces which are related to literary ideas under the advisorship of Prof. Dr. Cihat Aşkın and Prof. Judith Uluğ.

Prof. Tekin has been invited regularly by the Afyon Music Festival where she has given many recitals. Among those concert series, in 2012 she played Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor with the Praguemodern Ensemble at the opening concert. In 2013, she played Ulvi Cemal Erkin’s concerto with the Istanbul State Orchestra at the Goodwill Concert between Türkiye and Korea; a highly praised concert particularly by the Ulvi Cemal Erkin Foundation. Since 2013 she has been regularly invited to give master classes and seminars as a guest professor at  the Bologna, Salerno and Lecce Conservatories in Italy. She has also been invited to give concerts by international organizations such as the Verona Piano Festival, San Giacomo Festival, Contemporary Music Festival (ITU), St. John Classical Music Festival, Piano Summer Ohrid, Piano Summer Vranje, Bilkent Piano Festival, and Pharos Music Foundation. She has participated in International Music Symposiums and she is currently working on several articles about musical symbolism.

Prof. Tekin released four CD albums under the titles Triole (2010), Romance (2016), Winter Sonata (2019), and Piano Duo-Hungarian Dances of Brahms (2021). In 2018 she was invited to perform the ‘Carnival of the Animals’ of Saint Saens with the Daegu Opera House Orchestra for the New Year’s Concert by the Kyungpook University. She has had concert tours with her chamber music partners in Türkiye as well. She has given concerts in Izmir, Ankara, Eskişehir, Afyon, Konya, Malatya, Trabzon, Bolu, and Ayvalık. In addition to her busy concert schedule, she has an active education program calendar as well. She has given masterclasses for  university students in the cities where she visited to give concerts. She organized numerous international masterclass programs for Marmara University during her academic career at that university between 2008-2021.

Prof. Tekin has been a Professor at Bahçeşehir University since 2021, where she now serves as the Vice Director of the Conservatory.

Prof. Tekin extensively supports acitivies focused on women’s rights.  She has given concerts and speeches in international symposiums such as ‘Violence against Women’ at Boğaziçi University,  ESKAR of Marmara University, TUKD, and others.

Her pianism and concentration on music have been praised by numerous critics and audiences. Her former piano teacher Prof. Klaus Schilde said,

‘Sie versuchte immer in das Wesen und das Eigentliche der Werke einzudringen…dass ich sicher bin, dass Frau Tekin die o.a. Eigenschaften als wesenseigen immer behalten wird.’ (She was always seeking to penetrate into the entity and essence of the works…I am sure that this will remain one of Ms. Tekin’s defining characteristics.)

Hyun Sook Tekin has performed at various chamber music concerts as well as solo recitals in Korea, Japan, Germany, Austria, Italy, England, USA, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, and Türkiye.