Born in Montreal and raised in Seoul, Clara Shin owes greatly to her teachers, starting with Young-Mee Yun during her studies at Yewon School through Seoul Arts High School. When Korea National University of Arts was founded in 1993, she was accepted to study under Kyung-Sook Lee, Jong-Pil Lim, Daejin Kim, and Choongmo Kang. In 1997, she moved to the United States to continue her education with Boaz Sharon at the University of Florida. Among her other important teachers are Robert Roux who was her DMA adviser at Rice University, and John Perry whom she studied with in various master classes in the U.S. and Europe over the span of 8 years.

In 2001-2005, she was the Grand Prix winner of Rachmaninoff Competition in Italy, the silver medalist of Cincinnati’s World Piano Competition and the winner of Texas Young Artist Competition, Sorantin International Competition, and Ruth Burr Awards Piano Competition. In 2005, she won the national audition held by Seoul Arts Center, which marked her return to Korea. She appeared on the stage of Seoul Arts Center’s Spring Symphonic Festival and DaeJeon Philharmonic Orchestra’s Discovery Series.

In 2007, her ground-breaking performance with Antalya State Symphony Orchestra, in the concert commemorating the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic relationship between Korea and Turkey, was highlight by the International Piano Magazine as ‘kaleidoscopic depiction of Liszt’s Totentanz penetrating right to the soul’.

In 2009, she began to teach at Korea National University of Arts where she taught piano literature and helped laureates of Dong-A National Competition, Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, and Queen Elisabeth Competition.

In the same year, she began to serve as the Associate Director of the Young Artists Piano Program at Boston University Tanglewood Institute (aka BUTI), where she hosted master classes of international artists such as Emanuel Ax, Lang Lang, Garrick Ohlsson, and Lars Vogt. She trained young pianists for the major stages of Tanglewood Music Festival such as Seiji Ozawa Hall and Tanglewood On Parade, and, also curated countless piano concerts for the venues throughout Tanglewood community.

Since 2014, Clara Shin has been developing intensely forward-looking piano curriculum and teaching method for early childhood based on the Music Learning Theory by the late American musicologist Edwin Gordon. In 2015-2016, she created and performed a series of multi-dimensional arts and education programs with the piano music of Claude Debussy conceptualizing its metaphor, and the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Darius Milhaud depicting their cultural sensibilities. Since 2017, her unique and imaginative teaching artistry has been recognized by the cutting-edge field of music education at Baekseok University’s Graduate School in Korea, where she regularly gives lectures.

In addition, Clara Shin has been a fervent advocate of Beautiful Mind Charity where she teaches and advises their Music Academy for aspiring young musicians with autism and visual impairment for nearly a decade.