Dr. Kayla Ham Chon is a versatile collaborative pianist, vocal and instrumental coach, and educator whose career spans instrumental, vocal, chamber, opera, orchestral, and choral repertoire. Currently serving as a Lecturer of Piano at the University of the Incarnate Word, her creative practice is guided by the ethos that collaborative pianism is an intricate synthesis of performance, co-creation, mentorship, and pedagogy.

In addition to her faculty role, Dr. Chon serves as a collaborative pianist at Texas State University. She collaborates extensively across the university’s School of Music, working closely with vocal, instrumental, and choral studios. Equally at home in chamber music, she performs frequently with renowned faculty and guest artists throughout the region, having also appeared as a guest collaborative artist at the University of Texas at Austin and Southwestern University.

Within the studio, Dr. Chon is dedicated to fostering intellectually rigorous and confident musicians. Drawing upon her multifaceted background, she guides students to develop deep stylistic fluency, a spirit of musical inquiry, and compelling, authentic artistry. In demand as a vocal and instrumental coach, adjudicator, and music director, she has held coaching and leadership positions at premier institutions and organizations nationwide, including the Eastman School of Music, Stanford University, Austin Opera, TheatreWorks, and the Austin Chamber Music Center.

Dr. Chon began her piano studies at the age of three. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Keyboard Collaborative Arts from the University of Southern California, where she was honored with the Outstanding Keyboard Collaborative Artist Award, the Gwendolyn and Adolph Koldofsky Memorial Endowed Scholarship, and the Mary Van Lear Memorial Endowed Music Scholarship. She also holds a Bachelor of Music from the Eastman School of Music and a Master of Music from Westminster Choir College. Deeply invested in her professional community, she serves as an executive board member for the Austin District Music Teachers Association.