Chang Hae Won was born in Korea in the city of Seoul and started to play the piano at the age of six, completing her professional studies at Ewha University in Seoul in 1963. From 1964 until 1968 she studied at the Frankfurt Musikhochschule with Professor Leopolder on a German government scholarship and was awarded her diploma as a concert pianist. On her return to Korea she was appointed professor of piano at her old university.

In Korea Chang Hae Won won various prizes, including first prize in the Korean National Piano Competition. Her career as a concert pianist began three years earlier, in 1957, when she played Beethoven’s C minor Piano Concerto with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then she has enjoyed a busy career as a teacher and as a performer in Korea, in other Asian countries, in America and in Europe, with annual concert tours and engagements at home and abroad. She has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras and in recitals with Ruggiero Ricci, Christian Ferras, Renata Tebaldi, Franco Corelli, Aaron Rosand, André Navarra and others. She has performed as a soloist at numerous music festivals, including the Paris Château de Breteuil Festival, the National Music Festival in Korea and the festival for the opening of the Sejong Cultural Centre and of the Goethe-Institut in Seoul. She has served on the Vianna da Motta Competition jury in Lisbon. In 1985 she was acclaimed by the Music Critics’ Circle of Korea as Musician of the Year, and won high praise in the German press for her technical accomplishment and musicianship. She has recorded for Telefunken, Camerata Tokyo, Hong Kong Records and Marco Polo.