Combining her strong background in classical and jazz, Yoonah Oh brings a fresh perspective to her music.
Born in Seoul, Korea, Yoonah Oh grew up in a musician’s family, and completed her undergraduate degree in classical music at Hanyang University. At age of 16, Yoonah won the 2nd prize at Seoul CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) contest and shortly after, she began participating in numerous albums as a session musician, an arranger, and a chorus singer. During her college years, Yoonah began to invest time to explore different styles of music along with her classical training by participating in numerous Korean Pop (K-POP) albums as a piano/keyboard session musician and an orchestra arranger. The albums she has contributed at this time were for the most renowned Korean singers such as Kyuchan Cho, So Eun Lee, Woo Won, and Ash. Yoonah also wrote her own pop songs, placing 1st place in the prestigious Jae Ha Yoo Song Festival for her ballad “With All My Heart.” Yoonah, however, had never received formal training outside the classical music world. She began to feel as if she was up against a wall as she was experimenting with different styles of music, especially with her greatest area of interest, jazz.
After receiving a B.M. degree from Hanyang University in 2007, Yoonah moved to USA to study Jazz at Berklee College of Music. Yoonah was honored to receive entrance award, the Berklee North America Scholarship. She earned Bachelor’s diplomas in Jazz Composition and Performance. While at Berklee, she was able to study and work with Joanne Brackeen, Hal Crook, Tim Ray, Jetro da Silva, Scott Free, Bob Pilkington, Greg Hopkins, Jeff Garlindo etc. By working with experienced musicians, Yoonah grew immensely in her music in short period of time. Later, Yoonah was given an opportunity to perform her graduate recital at Berklee Performance Center, which was the venue for only few selected students at Berklee. Moreover, she received Piano Department Achievement Award and Berklee Achievement Scholarship for her outstanding accomplishments.
Yoonah’s musical journey did not limit in school. Yoonah quickly became one of the most demanded pianists in New England area owing to her versatility on various styles of music such as Jazz, Funk, Gospel, R&B, Pop, Rock and Classical music. She began to take an integral part of the Boston-based Streets Band since 2010, performing across the New England and eastern area. In addition, within few years in Boston.
Yoonah has extensive recording experiences and there are more CD albums that will be released soon. For one of her recent works, Grace sings Grace, as composer, arranger and performer. She collaborated with Grammy Award winner, Mr. Tally Sherwood. She continues to appear in variety types of musical events in Jazz clubs, concerts, and conferences across the country (please refer to her discography for details).
Moreover, Yoonah has been involved in the music ministry; as an accompanist, worship leader, and a choir member for First Korean Church in Cambridge (FKCC) for past 5 years. Also Yoonah has been participating in national Christian conferences such as KOSTA (Scranton, PA, and Indianapolis, IN), Kingdom Conference (North East, MD), and ReNEW Conference (New England) for past 3-4 years.
