South Korean pianist Yoonie Han has a list of achievements longer than she is tall.

Han, 27, was first-prize winner of the Washington International Piano Competition and the Fulbright Competition in 2011, winner of Juilliard’s Gina Bachauer Piano Competition and the World Piano Competition in 2008, winner of the Kosciuszko Chopin Competition in 2005 - etc., etc., etc. - and in 2009, she was honored with the Gawon Music Award as the “most brilliant pianist aged 17 to 31 of any nationality who possesses the most promising potential for global prominence.”

That might make it sound like Han has spent a sheltered life in a practice hall. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The child of a horticulture professor and a pianist, Han grew up in Seoul and made her debut with the Seoul Philharmonic at age 13. At 15, she moved to New York City alone to attend Juilliard.

“What was I thinking?” she wonders with a big, boisterous laugh.

At 17, she got stuck in Spain after her passport was stolen and spent two months alone in the country waiting on paperwork. It was then she fell in love with “Spanish music, language, culture and cuisine,” and she says the music is still her favorite to play.

Even after those adventures - and only occasional trips back to South Korea - Han says traveling is one of the best things about her life as a Steinway artist.

On Tuesday, Han was in California, where she’d performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Santa Cruz County Symphony Friday and Saturday, followed by a recital on Monday. She was heading out on a red-eye flight Tuesday evening to XNA to play Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” Saturday with the Arkansas Philharmonic. Then it’s on to four appearances in Georgia, three in Florida, then back to New York City for a few days in March. After that, she’ll head for the Slovak Republic, theNetherlands, Mississippi, California and finally, on May 20, New York again.

“I miss my apartment in New York,” Han admits. “I think home is the best place to anyone. I miss hanging out with my friends in New York. I miss my mom and dad in Korea. But more than that, I love music, and I’m so glad I can tour.

“The thing about touring is that you get to meet a lot of nice people, especially when you go to the South,” Han adds, saying she often stays with a “host family” instead of in a hotel.

In 2007, she was playing with the Mississippi Symphony in Jackson when she met her “U.S. mom and dad.”

“They were my host family, and we instantly connected,” Han says. “I love cooking, and she had published a Southern cookbook, so we spent a lot of time in the supermarket and in the kitchen. She has three sons, and she always wanted to have a daughter, so they call me their ‘Korean daughter.’”

However, Han adds with another laugh, “I have a Korean accent, and they have a Southern accent, so we don’t communicate very well. But we do have fun trying to imitate each other!”

Han had to learn about another uniquely American institution - jazz - for her interpretation of “Rhapsody in Blue.”

“I had to go to the West Village in New York to some jazz clubs to get familiar with the music,” she says. “It’s fun to play, but it’s not easy for me toadopt the style. Is it jazz? Is it classical? I think it is some of both.”

Gershwin wrote “Rhapsody in Blue” for solo piano and jazz band as a commissioned piece for bandleader Paul Whiteman. He started “American Rhapsody” on Jan. 7, 1924, finished it Feb. 4 and saw it debuted in New York City on Feb. 12 at a concert attended by John Philip Sousa and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Steven Byess, music director of the Arkansas Philharmonic, says it not only established Gershwin as a serious composer but “also introduced a new mode of thinking about the worth” of ragtime and jazz.

“I built this program around ‘Rhapsody in Blue’,” Byess says.

“Everything about it is listener friendly - and Yoonie is an extraordinary pianist.”

Whats Up, Pages 20 on 02/01/2013