Chaeyoung Park Piano Recital at Pepperdine

Chaeyoung Park brings a full solo recital to Pepperdine University's Raitt Recital Hall on Sunday, October 4, at 2 PM. The South Korea-born pianist has already built a resume most performers twice her age would envy: winner of the 2022 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, a finalist at the 2023 Arthur Rubinstein International Master Piano Competition, and the first female Korean pianist to take first place at the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. She's played Carnegie Hall and the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, and shared stages with orchestras across the US and Israel. This is the kind of booking that quietly makes the list of things to do in Los Angeles this weekend for anyone who follows the classical circuit, even though the hall itself sits just over the LA County line in Malibu.

What's on the program

Park's Sunday program moves through four centuries without settling into any one mood for long. She opens with Johann Christian Bach's Sonata No. 5 in A Major, then pivots to Ravel's prickly, brief Serenade Grotesque and Bartok's "The Night's Music" from Out of Doors. The first half closes with Beethoven's "Appassionata," one of his most physically demanding sonatas, full stop.

After intermission, the tone turns darker: Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 9, nicknamed "Black Mass" for its unsettled, chromatic writing, followed by Beethoven's "Tempest" Sonata. Park closes on a lighter note with Delibes' Naila Waltz in Ernő Dohnányi's arrangement, a ballet melody turned into a showpiece.

Where to see it

Raitt Recital Hall seats just 124 people, one of three performance spaces inside Pepperdine's Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts. That's a small enough room that even a back-row seat puts you close to the keyboard, which matters for a program built around dynamic extremes like this one. It's a different scale than the venues that usually host LA concerts, and it's worth the drive out Pacific Coast Highway for that reason alone.

When: Sunday, October 4, 2026, at 2 PM Where: Raitt Recital Hall, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu Tickets: $23 to $33 Box Office: 310-506-4522, open Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5 PM

Getting there and practical info

Pepperdine's Malibu campus sits right on PCC, with parking available near the Center for the Arts; give yourself extra time on weekends when coastal traffic backs up. The box office opens two hours before most performances if you'd rather buy in person than order online. For anyone scanning for live music los angeles options that skip the usual rock club circuit, a solo recital like this is a reminder that concerts in Los Angeles cover a lot more ground than arena shows and festival lineups.

There's no dress code beyond common sense, and the hall's small size means latecomers may be held until a break between pieces, so plan to arrive on time. If classical piano isn't normally on your radar, this is a low-commitment way to try it: one afternoon, one performer, a program that never stays in one gear for long.