Despite Sunwook Kim’s numerous performances in London, I’ve never managed to get to see him here. But I caught him at the Tongyeong International Music Festival a couple of weeks ago playing Beethoven, Brahms, Liszt and Yun Isang. Based on his performance, I’ve been missing out. He’s a regular visitor to the Mill Hill Music Club, and this Sunday he presents a very accessible programme there:
Sunday,22nd April 2012 @ 7.30pm
The Hall, The Henrietta Barnett School
Sunwook Kim – PianoBeethoven – Sonata No. 3 in C Op.2 No.3
Beethoven – Sonata No 8 in C minor Op.13 Pathétique
Schubert – Sonata in A major D.959
Sunwook Kim came to international recognition when he won the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition in 2006, aged just 18. The competition’s youngest winner for 40 years, as well as its first Asian winner, his performance for the finals of Brahms’s Concerto No.1 with the Hallé Orchestra and Mark Elder attracted unanimous praise from the press, and led to concerto engagements with some of the world’s finest orchestras as well as recitals throughout Europe.
Highlights among Sunwook Kim’s forthcoming concerto projects include return engagements with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Helsinki Radio Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony, Hallé Orchestra and Seoul Philharmonic, as well as subscription debuts with the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Janowski), Concertgebouw Orchestra (Chung), and NHK Symphony Orchestra.
Following the success of his Paris debut recital in the prestigious Piano 4 Etoiles series at Salle Pleyel, Sunwook Kim was re-invited to perform in the series in 11/12 and 12/13. 11/12 will also see Sunwook Kim’s debut at the Wigmore Hall in London, a debut recital tour in Japan (Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya) and the start of a two-year project at the LG Arts Centre in Seoul, where he will present a complete cycle of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. In March 2012, Sunwook will also be resident artist at the prestigious Tongyeong International Music Festival in Korea.
Born in Seoul in 1988, Sunwook Kim began the piano at the age of 3. He gave his debut recital aged just 10 at the Kumho Prodigy Series in Seoul, and this was followed by his concerto debut two years later.
Since then he has appeared as concerto soloist in the subscription series of the London Philharmonic (Sinaisky), Philharmonia Orchestra (Ashkenazy), Radio-France Philharmonic (Chung), Tokyo Philharmonic (Chung), Hallé Orchestra (Elder), BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Festival Orchestra, as well as on tour in Korea with the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Janowski), Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (Chung), Budapest Festival Orchestra (I. Fischer) and the BBC Philharmonic (Noseda).
Recent recital appearances include Brussels Klara Festival, Brussels Summer Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, Klavier-Festival Ruhr and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele in Germany, the Dinard Festival in France, the London and Vancouver Chopin Societies, the Aspen Music Festival, New York’s International Keyboard Institute, the New Ross International Piano Festival in Ireland, the Duszniki Zdrój International Chopin Festival in Poland as well as the Tongyeong International Music Festival and Kumho Rising Stars Series in Korea.
Sunwook Kim graduated from the Korean National University of Arts in February 2008, where he has been a student of Daejin Kim since 1999. Besides Leeds, international awards include the first prize at the 2004 Ettlingen Competition (Germany) and the 2005 Clara Haskil Competition (Switzerland). In Korea he was the first winner of the Daewon Artist of the Year award (2005) and also received the Kumho Musician of the Year Award (2007).
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