Yeol Eum Son – pianoforte

Poetic elegance, an innate feeling for expressive nuance and the power to project bold dramatic contrasts are among the arresting attributes of Yeol Eum Sonâs pianism. Her refined artistry rises from breathtaking technical control and a profound empathy for the emotional temper of the works within her strikingly wide repertoire. She is driven above all by her natural curiosity to explore a multitude of musical genres and styles and the desire to reveal what she describes as the âpure essenceâ of everything she performs.
In high demand as recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician, Yeol Eum has won critical plaudits for the profound insights and intelligence of her interpretations. Her development as an all-round artist has gained from collaborations with conductors as diverse as Lorin Maazel, Dmitri Kitajenko, Valery Gergiev, Andrew Manze, Jaime Martin, Jun MĂ€rkl, Roberto GonzĂĄlez-Monjas, Jonathon Heyward, Ryan Bancroft, Pablo Gonzalez, Pietari Inkinen, Joana Carneiro, Gergely Madaras and Omer Meir Welber.
She has likewise discovered fresh creative perspectives since her appointment in 2018 as Artistic Director of Music in PyeongChang and as a regular chamber music partner with, among others, the violinist Svetlin Roussev and the Modigliani Quartet.
Pianist magazine wrote of the âbreathtaking dexterity and finger controlâ on display in Yeol Eumâs recording of Nikolai Kapustinâs jazz-infused works for solo piano, while the Sydney Morning Herald commended the âlight, fine-pointed energy, alert nimbleness and agile precisionâ of her reading of Mozartâs Piano Concerto in D minor K.466 with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Edo de Waart, given during her Australian debut tour at the start of the 2022-23 season.
Yeol Eum returned from Australia to Europe in September 2022 to launch her term as Artist-inResidence with the Residentie Orkest with Ravelâs Piano Concerto in G major. The nine-concert residency continues throughout the season with performances of Mozartâs Piano Concerto in D minor, Gershwinâs Rhapsody in Blue and I Got Rhythm, Saint-SaĂ«nsâ Piano Concerto No.2 and Ravelâs Piano Concerto for the Left Hand.
Yeol Eum Sonâs 2022-23 schedule includes a succession of debut performances with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Rachmaninovâs Piano Concerto No.2), the NDR Radiophilharmonie (Beethoven and Rachmaninov concertos), the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (Mendelssohnâs Piano Concerto No.1), the Orquesta SinfĂłnica del Principado de Asturias (Szymanowskiâs Symphony No.4), Musikkollegium Winterthur (Ravelâs Piano Concerto in G major), the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (Mozartâs Piano Concerto in B-flat Major K.595), and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (Beethovenâs Piano Concerto No.2). She will close her season with the world premiere of a new work by the Swedish composer Albert Schnelzer in recital at the Helsingborg Piano Festival.
In recent years Yeol Eum has appeared as concerto soloist with leading orchestras in Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States. She began her 2022-23 season with debut performances with the Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony and the Tasmanian Symphony orchestras. The international reach of her work is clearly reflected in collaborations with, among others, the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, the GĂŒrzenich, Dresden Philharmonic and TonkĂŒnstler Orchestras, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie SaarbrĂŒcken, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Orchestre national dâĂle-de-France, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de LiĂšge, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic at the 2019 BBC Proms, BBC Scottish, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Budapest Festival, Helsinki, Oslo and Bergen Philharmonic, Basel Symphony, Castilla y LeĂłn Symphony and Spanish Radio and Television Symphony orchestras, Singapore Symphony, San Diego and Detroit Symphony and the Mariinsky Orchestra.
Shakespeareâs maxim, âTo thine own self be trueâ, resonates with Yeol Eum Son. âAs an artist,â she reflects, âI want to become more adventurous, free and daring but, at the same time, remain curious and âup-to-dateâ.â The breadth of her interests within and beyond music informed the monthly column she contributed for six years to one of South Koreaâs leading newspapers, and a book-length anthology of her journalism sold out within two days of its publication. Yeol Eum refuses to impose limits on her artistic freedom and remains determined to explore new artistic territory. Her choice of repertoire, which spans everything from the works of Bach and Mozart to those of Shchedrin and Kapustin, is guided chiefly by the quality and depth of the music.
Yeol Eumâs curatorial approach, which makes a virtue of versatility, is boldly stated in her solo recital and chamber music programmes. She opened her 2022-23 season in Sydney with a recital that included works by Haydn, Tchaikovsky, PĂ€rt and Alkan alongside Franck, Rachmaninov and Kapustin. Other season highlights include a tour of the United States featuring JanĂĄÄekâs Piano Sonata 1.X.1905, âFrom the Streetâ, Kapustinâs Piano Sonata No.2, The Wizard of Oz Fantasy by William Hirtz and Guido Agostiâs transcription of Stravinskyâs The Firebird Suite, and a recital of Prokofievâs Piano Sonatas Nos.1-3 offered together with Kapustinâs Piano Sonata No.4 and Piano Sonata No.2 at Amsterdamâs Muziekgebouw aan ât IJ.
Yeol Eum Son, born in Wonju, South Korea in 1986, received her first piano lessons at the age of threeand-a-half. She was among the prize winners at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in 1997 and won the Oberlin International Piano Competition two years later. Yeol Eum studied at Korea National University of Arts and continued her training with Professor Arie Vardi at the Hochschule fĂŒr Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover.
Yeol Eum attracted international attention when she secured second prize and the Best Chamber Music Performance at the 2009 Van Cliburn Competition. She underlined her position among the most gifted artists of her generation at the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition, where she won the Silver Medal and received the coveted competitionâs prizes for Best Chamber Concerto Performance and Best Performance of the Commissioned Work.
Over the past decade Yeol Eum has achieved global acclaim not least for her interpretations of Mozartâs piano concertos. In 2016 she joined the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Sir Neville Marriner in what proved to be the conductorâs final recording, setting down a radiant interpretation of Mozartâs Piano Concerto No.21 in C Major K.467 for Onyx Classics. She made her London debut at Cadogan Hall with the same work and orchestra in 2018 and enchanted the audience at the Royal Albert Hall the following year with Mozartâs Piano Concerto in B-flat Major K.450 for her debut at the BBC Proms. The YouTube video of her performance of K.467 at the International Tchaikovsky Competition has been viewed almost 23 million times, thought to be a record figure for any live Mozart work on the platform.
In addition to her all-Mozart album for Onyx (2018), Yeol Eumâs discography includes Modern Times, an album of works by Berg, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Ravel (Decca, 2016), a recording of Schumannâs Fantasy in C, Kreisleriana and Arabesque (Onyx, 2020) and a disc devoted to Nikolai Kapustinâs Eight Concert Etudes, Piano Sonata No.2 and other representative compositions (Onyx, 2021).
Una produzione
ACCORDI MUSICALI (International Classical Music Festival)
OPERA MUSIC MANAGEMENT
produzione video
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