Soo-Jung Shin received her musical training at Seoul National University, the Vienna Academy of Music (Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien), and the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, U.S.A. Her teachers include Chung Jin-Woo, Josef Dichler, Leon Fleisher, Wilhelm Kempff, and Maria Curzio Diamond. She won many prizes in music competitions, including the Dong-A National Competition in Korea, the Elena Rombro-Stepanow Competition in Vienna, and the Deutsch Industrie Vanband Scholarship Competition, among others. She was also awarded the Korean Academy of Arts Award. She received “Das Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse” from the German Government in 2011.

Her debut came at age 13 when she performed Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 with the Navy Symphony Orchestra (now the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra).

She has performed with orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, KBS and NHK Symphony, under the batons of Lim Won-Shik, Leon Fleisher, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sir John Pritchard, Asahina Takashi, Iwaki Hiroyuki and also with Ruggiero Ricci, Nicolai Gedda, Janos Starker, Chung Kyung Wha and others, as well as serving as a juror at international competitions, including ARD, Seoul, Tokyo, Köln, UNISA, Dublin, Hamamatsu, Sendai and Leeds International Music Competitions.

At 26, Soo-Jung Shin was the youngest faculty member at her alma mater, the College of Music, Seoul National University and also taught at the Seoul High School of Arts and Kyung Won University, where she was Dean of the School of Music. In 2000, she returned to Seoul National University and taught there until her retirement in 2007. She was also elected Dean of the College of Music, the first woman in its history. 2009 saw her elected a member of the National Academy of Arts, Korea. She is Professor Emeritus of Seoul National University and chairperson of the Great Mountain Music Festival & School`s Steering Committee Soo-Jung Shin divides her time among concerts, teaching, masterclasses, organizing piano seminars, and serving as a board member of the Seoul Arts Center and others.