Namhee Han

Playing from the heart defines Namhee Han’s approach to music making. She was a featured artist at the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) in 2004 and the Regional Convention of the AGO in San Francisco in 2011. Namhee was selected for the 6th Musashino-Tokyo International Organ Competition in 2008. Constantly expanding the repertoire of her artistic expressions, she has played the harpsichord and harmonium with the GRAMMY Award winning Southwest Chamber Music.

A native of South Korea, Namhee studied the piano from age eight. After earning a Bachelor of Arts in English education from Seoul National University, she came to the US to pursue graduate studies in linguistics. It was then that she encountered the organ and became immediately fascinated with the limitless tonal and expressive possibilities of the instrument. She began organ study with Thomas Harmon in 1999 and completed Master\'s and Doctoral degrees in organ performance at UCLA working with Christoph Bull. In addition, she holds Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in applied linguistics from UCLA.

Dr. Han has coached with Marie-Claire Alain, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Jean Guillou and Guy Bovet, and participated in master classes by such eminent teacher-organists as David Craighead, Frederick Swann, Marilyn Keiser, Christopher Herrick, Paul Jacobs, Kimberly Marshall and Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin. She has also studied with Philip Smith, the Organ Conservator at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

The resident organist at Westwood Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, Dr. Han is keenly interested in contributing to the music community in Southern California and regularly collaborates with instrumentalists, orchestras and choral groups in local performances. Her recent performance projects include playing solo and duo organ pieces in the soon-to-be released DVD “The story of the Walt Disney Concert Hall organ”. She enjoys teaching piano and organ, and maintaining an intellectually stimulating and physically active life.