Born in Busan, South Korea, award-winning pianist, composer and songwriter Haeun Joo is making a name for herself as a highly original composer and a thoughtful performer. Having grown up around the jazz, funk and pop of the Seoul scene, she eventually decided to search for the source of the jazz sound she loved so much, moving to the United States in 2011 to study at Berklee School of Music. There, she studied under George Garzone, Danilo Perez and Joanne Brackeen amongst many others; she counts Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans and Fred Hersch amongst her central influences. It was also here that Haeun encountered her teacher and mentor, Vadim Neselovskyi, himself an accomplished pianist-composer.

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She moved to New York to study at SUNY Purchase where she got her master’s degree and where she has been actively playing since. In 2021 Haeun Joo released her debut album, “We Will Find”. An introspective exploration of deep thoughts realized in a hopeful idiom with dashes of melancholia, We Will Find is contemplative jazz with a modern sensibility which features Matt Holman doubling trumpet, Doug Weiss on bass and Ronen Itzik on drums.

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As a sidemusican, Haeun Joo has recorded with several musicians in the New York scene including the award-winning album, released in 2021, “Daring Mind” by acclaimed composer Jihye Lee. Haeun Joo has toured internationally with her music and other projects and has played in some of the most important jazz clubs in Korea, Mexico and New York. Joo’s second album is scheduled to be released in fall of 2025.