The Washington Post declared Shirley Yoo a pianist with “extraordinary sensitivity and technical skill.” Highlights of concerts abroad include performances at Tata Theatre, Mumbai; Arts Center, Seoul; Penderecki Festival, Banff; Societa Filarmonica, Trento; and Steinway Hall, London. Her top prize winnings include such competitions as the Pennsylvania Federation of Music Clubs, the National Society of Arts and Letters, and the Kosciuszko Foundation’s National Chopin Competition.

In addition to her solo performances, Yoo is passionate about chamber music and has performed in several chamber ensembles across the mid-Atlantic region. Live and recorded performances of both solo and chamber have been broadcast on WQED, Pittsburgh and WQLN, Erie. She was a founding member of the Annapolis Chamber Players, an ensemble of winds, strings and two pianos. Recently, she has collaborated with members of So Percussion performing contemporary repertoire for two pianos and percussion. Yoo is a founding core member of League of the Unsound Sound (LotUS), a chamber group dedicated to performing contemporary and experimental music. Past chamber music studies include coachings with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Shanghai, and Tokyo String Quartets. She has participated in master classes with Marc Durand, Leon Fleisher, Marek Jablonski, and Seymour Lipkin. Yoo won a Presser Award to work with Noretta Conci-Leech in London, England; more recently, she was awarded a Maryland State Arts Council Grant.

Yoo’s primary teachers include Raymond Hanson, Ann Koscielny, Conci-Leech, and Ellen Mack. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and received her Master of Music degree on a fellowship with highest honors at the University of Maryland. After attending the Royal Academy of Music in London, UK, she earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Peabody Institute. For five years, Yoo was a faculty member in the Theory Department at Peabody. Currently, she is Assistant Professor of Piano at Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA. At the college, she serves as the coordinator of the keyboard area and is also artist-in-residence as the pianist of the D’Angelo Trio.