Clara Jung-Yang Shin has traveled all around the world dazzling audiences with her superior ability to do one thing: play the piano.

She will be here in Ames on Sunday, in conjunction with the FACES Celebration. Shin, Seoul, Korea native, graduated from The Korean National University of Arts in 1997.

She has performed as a soloist with many distinguished orchestras and won numerous awards for her playing.

In college, Shin said she learned how to pay close attention to such musical elements as the dynamics, articulation, rhythm and tempo – the things that make a piece of music not only musical but emotional in the way that touches the listener and the player.

Mike King, along with Ames Recreation Superintendent Rick Ertz, decides what events the Ames City Auditorium will host each year.

“When I listened to her tape, there was a presence there that got my attention, and made me want to play it again,” said King, auditorium and activities supervisor for the City of Ames Parks and Recreation department.

Now, as a student in the Doctoral of Musical Arts program at Rice University, Shin finds herself keeping busy taking lessons and classes, teaching music and doing collaborative activities.

Shin’s mentor at Rice , Robert Roux, says, “[Her] playing has electricity, deep musicality, emotional commitment and a spontaneity which is the province of the most gifted artists.”

Shin sees herself as a musician and as a person in a uniquely reflective and engaging way.

“I think of being a pianist as a process of climbing a spiral stairway,” Shin said. “When I look down, I only get to have a view of a circle. In other words, it is easy to think that I am repeating to circle around and keep coming back to where I used to be. However, if I think of it from the side view, I am standing on the same point as a different musician from yesterday,” Shin said.

Shin’s performance is free to the public. It will begin at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Ames City Auditorium.