By winning the 66th ARD International Music Competition in Munich 2017 and BR Klassik Online Prize Kyeong Ham (oboe) has established himself as one of the most engaging and outstanding oboists of his generation.
He started playing the oboe in Seoul where he grew up. At the age of 15 he relocated to Germany to pursue his studies with Nicholas Daniel at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Trossingen and later at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin with Dominik Wollenweber. At the age of 20 he became a scholarship holder of the Herbert von Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker where he was taught by Jonathan Kelly.
His talent and endeavour in oboe have been proven with numerous prizes, including his stunning First Prizes at the Richard Lauschmann International Oboe Competition in Mannheim (2009), Tchaikovsky Conservatory’s International Competition of Performers on Wind and Percussion Instruments in Moscow (2010) and Józef Ciepłuha International Academic Oboe and Bassoon Competition in Łódź, Poland (2011) as well as Iris Marquardt Prize (2010). In April 2013 Kyeong Ham was named the winner at the Muri Competition in Switzerland, where he also received the Audience Prize by an impressive margin in the final round, and the Heinz Holliger Special Prize from Holliger himself.
As a soloist, Kyeong Ham has appeared with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Argovia Philharmonic, Ensemble CHAART. In the 2020/21 season, Kyeong Ham appeared as a soloist twice with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, performing Bach’s oboe concerto under Kreeta-Maria Kentala and giving the world premiere of oboe concerto Incandescence by Maija Hynninen.
He is also frequently invited to play as a guest principal oboist with many leading European orchestras, such as the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, SWR Symphonieorchester, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. Before his current position in Helsinki where he serves as the first principal oboe of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and teaches at the Sibelius Academy, he was the principal oboist at the Staatsoper Hannover and second oboe/English horn at the Concertgebouworkest in Amsterdam.
