Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University will host The Three Pianists featuring Dr. Lei Cai, Dr. Hee-Kyung Juhn and Dr. Naoki Hakutani on Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 7:30 p.m. in Mabee Fine Arts Center’s McBeth Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

“It should be a fun recital,” said Dr. Lei Cai, associate professor of music at Ouachita. “We will use one or two pianos with different combinations for different pieces: six hands on one piano; four hands on two pianos; eight hands on two pianos.”

The program will include pieces by famous composers such as Beethoven, Falla, Liszt and Wagner as well as pieces by contemporary composer Peter Schinkele.

Cai, originally from China, has collaborated with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra on CDs and has recorded for Radio Shanghai. He earned his Master of Music degree from the University of Tennessee and his Doctor of Music degree from Florida State University. He has served at Ouachita since 2001.

Dr. Hee-Kyung Juhn serves on the piano faculty at Henderson State University. Originally from South Korea, Juhn earned her Master of Music degree from The Julliard School and her Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University. She has appeared in music festivals such as Aspen, Bowdoin, Tanglewood and Yale Piano Summer Institute.

Dr. Naoki Hakutani, originally from Japan, currently serves as a piano professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Hakutani earned a Master of Music degree from Indiana University and received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin. Hakutani’s wife, who currently serves as a piano professor in Korea, also will be featured in this year’s recital.

For more information, contact Dr. Lei Cai at [email protected] or (870) 245-5274.

By Taylor Tomlinson