William Youn

William Youn

Piano

William Youn is managed worldwide by Leontien van der Vliet,

Contact:
E: leontien.vandervliet@interartists.nl
T: +31 6 5 24 68 707

Asia management by Sobang Yoo at SBU Vienna

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Critics have called him “a true poet of the piano” whose “brilliant touch” allows him to explore the “spiritual depths” of the music he plays: William Youn is one of the finest pianists of our day and has established an international reputation, particularly for his Schubert recordings. His playing is characterized by subtlety, emotional insight, and sensitive analysis.

From Berlin to Seoul to New York, Youn has performed throughout the world with renowned orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, the Belgian National Orchestra and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in many of the world’s finest concert halls, including Wigmore Hall in London, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Pierre Boulez Saal and the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, deSingel in Antwerp, Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, and the Seoul Arts Center.

William Youn is also a frequent guest at international festivals such as the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, the Schubertiade in Hohenems/Schwarzenberg, the MITO SettembreMusica, the Grafenegg Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Heidelberg Spring Music Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Mozartfest in Würzburg, the SWR Schwetzingen Festival, and the Davos Festival.

In addition to the modern grand piano, William Youn also performs on the fortepiano. In addition to his activities as a soloist, he is an enthusiastic chamber musician and accompanist, working with artists such as the violist Nils Mönkemeyer, the clarinetist Sabine Meyer, the cellist Julian Steckel, the violinists Carolin Widmann and Veronika Eberle, the Aris String Quartet, and the baritone Thomas Hampson.

Numerous award-winning CD recordings document William Youn’s work. Following several recordings with Nils Mönkemeyer, a cycle of five albums for Oehms Classics with the complete Mozart piano sonatas, and the solo album “Schumann-Liszt- Schubert”, in November 2022 Sony Classical released the third and final part of Youn’s complete recording of the Schubert piano sonatas. His most recent release with works for piano and orchestra from the Belle Époque (Reynaldo Hahn, Gabriel Fauré and Nadio Boulanger) received a Diapason D’Or. Critics have praised the first two parts of this trilogy for their “flawless, perfectly realized naturalness” (Fono Forum) and for Youn’s depiction of “Schubert’s sense of existential despair.” (Münchner Merkur)

In season 2023/24, William Youn will continue his successful Schubert cycles at the Schubertiade Hohenems/Schwarzenberg and in Taiwan, and will give guest performances in Montréal, New York, Taipei, Seoul and Munich, among other cities. In Berlin, he will juxtapose Schubert's A major Sonata with John Adams' minimalist masterpiece "Phrygian Gates" in the Pierre Boulez Hall, and he will again devote himself intensively to Bach's "Goldberg Variations": At the Montréal Bach Festival with a solo recital as Season 2023/24 as well as in the revival of the production "Goldberg Variations" with the Vienna State Ballet. Together with the Munich Chamber Orchestra he will undertake an extended tour to his home country Korea in early summer 2024

Born in Seoul, William Youn first discovered the piano in a Korean kindergarten. At the age of 13 he moved to the USA to study at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Five years later he moved to Germany, where he studied with the legendary piano pedagogue Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. While a scholarship student at the Piano Academy Lake Como, Youn received further musical inspiration from artists such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Andreas Staier, William Grant.

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Highlights

2024

05 April - Boulezsaal Berlin, solo recital

19 April: Beethovenhaus Bonn, chamber music with Nils Mönkemeyer & Albrecht Selge

08 Juni: Schumannfest Bonn, solo recital Goldberg Variations

18 - 23 June: Korea Tour with Munich Chamber Orchestra, Mendelssohn Double Concerto

03 July: Gezeiten Festival, portrait composer Konstantia Gourzi

10 July: Tegernsee Musikfest, chamber music with Carolin Widmann, Nils Mönkemeyer and Julian Steckel

11 July: Schubertiade Hohenems, Schubert Piano Sonata cycle

13 July: Schloss Elmau, chamber music with Carolin Widmann, Nils Mönkemeyer and Julian Steckel1

14 July: Kissinger Sommer, chamber music with Sabine Meyer and Nils Mönkemeyer

04 August: Herrenchiemsee

09 August: Ulsan Philharmonic Orchestra

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Reviews on Youn’s Diapason D’or winning Sony CD

with among other Reynaldo Hahn’s Concerto, Gabriel Fauré’s Ballade op. 19 and Nadia Boulangers Fantaisie variée. Performed with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and conductor Valentin Uryupin.

“Youn’s piano brilliantly brings out the ambiguities of the central episode. His balanced dialogue with the Berliners lends a heart-rending quality to the dark thoughts that arise midway through (string ostinatos) and, each time swept away as one wipes away re-emerging tears.”

— Diapason - Marc Lesage

“Bei der seltenen „Fantaisie variée“ von Nadia Boulanger bildet der volle, dunkle Klang des Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchesters Berlin einen schönen Gegenpol zum hell und durchsichtig gehaltenen Klavierpart. Die Wagner-Bewunderung der Komponistin hört man. Bei den für Klavier solo von Youn arrangierten Liedern „À Chloris“ und „L’heure exquise“ von Hahn sowie bei „Après un rêve“ von Fauré gerät der Pianist in ein beinahe sakrales Singen von feinster Couleur.”

— Rondo Magazin

“Eine schöne Entdeckung, charmant präsentiert vom RSO Berlin und William Youn, der immer wieder Raum für feine Nuancen im Klang und im Tempo findet.”

— Album der Woche: NDR

“William Youn hat sich diese Werke genau angeeignet. In den weiteren geperlten, mitunter glitzernden Läufen erkennt man seine Mozart-Erfahrung, in den Momenten mit überraschenden Harmonien seine Vertrautheit mit den Nachwirkungen der Spätromantik. Der Charakter von Fantasie und Improvisation, die Lust am Erzählen wird in allen Werken hörbar. ”

— concerti.ch