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 and representation in Austria by Sobang Yoo at SBU Vienna

Representation in Germany for Recitals & Chamber Music by Haefliger Production

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Critics call him “a true poet of the piano”: Pianist William Youn has established an international reputation, particularly for his subtlety, clarity, emotional insight and sensitive analysis. With a broad solo, chamber music and orchestral repertoire including Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin and Rachmaninov as well as contemporary music he presents himself as a versatile and creative artist, who loves to share his enthusiasm for interpretation and discovery with colleagues and audiences alike.

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, the Mariinsky Orchestra, Munich Chamber 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. Among his musical partners are conductors Myung-Whun Chung, Hannu Lintu, Pietari Inkinen, Kristiina Poska, Thomas Hengelbrock and Mario Venzago, the composers Isabel Mundry and Konstantia Gourzi as well as violist Nils Mönkemeyer and clarinetist Sabine Meyer.

William Youn is also a frequent guest at international festivals such as Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, Schubertiade in Hohenems/Schwarzenberg, MITO SettembreMusica, Grafenegg Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Heidelberger Frühling, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Mozartfest Würzburg, Montréal Bach Festival, Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele and Davos Festival.

In the 2024/25 season, William Youn will continue his successful Schubert cycles at the Schubertiade Hohenems/Schwarzenberg and in Tongyeong (South Korea), and he will again devote himself intensively to Bach's "Goldberg Variations" for a debut in Amsterdam. He will also perform Schumann’s Piano Concerto, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 as well as Mozart’s Piano Concertos K271 “Jenamy” and K414 with the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, and will collaborate with conductors Riccardo Minasi and Bernard Labadie for the first time. He will return to the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg for the world premiere performance of Manfred Trojahn’s “Trame Lunari” for viola, piano and chamber orchestra with Ensemble Resonanz, a co-commission of Elbphilharmonie and Mozartfest Würzburg for William Youn and Nils Mönkemeyer.

William Youn has released numerous award-winning CDs. In November 2022, he completed his three-part complete recording of all Schubert piano sonatas for Sony Classical, which was highly praised by the international press, making it a "recording of the century" (Crescendo). He also recorded all Mozart sonatas on five albums for Oehms Classics. To mark the 150th birthday of Reynaldo Hahn, William Youn's first orchestral recording for Sony with piano concertos by Hahn and Nadia Boulanger as well as works by Gabriel Fauré was released by Sony in January 2024. It was honoured with the Diapason d'Or.

Born in Seoul, William Youn discovered the piano in kindergarten and moved to Boston in the USA at the age of 13 to study at the New England Conservatory. Five years later, he transferred to the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media and received further musical impetus as a scholarship holder at the Piano Academy Lake Como, where he was influenced by artistic personalities such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Andreas Staier, William Grant Naboré and Menahem Pressler. As a member of the board of trustees, he is involved in the Wilhelm Kempff Cultural Foundation in Positano, where he also teaches regularly.

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Highlights

2024

30 August: Ulsan Philharmonic Orchestra, Christoph Poppen, Schumann Piano Concerto

7 October: Die Glocke Bremen, chamber music with Carolin Widmann, Nils Mönkemeyer and Julian Steckel

11, 12, 13 October: Tongyeong Concert Hall, Schubert piano sonata cycle

13 November: Goyang Aram Nuri Arts Center, DMZ Open International Music Festival KR, duo recital with Dmytro Udovychenko

14 November: GANAC, DMZ Open International Music Festival KR, chamber music with members of Vienna Philharmonic

20 November: Boulezsaal Berlin, chamber music with Carolin Widmann, Nils Mönkemeyer and Julian Steckel

2025

23 February Prinzregententheater Munich, chamber music with Sabine Meyer and Nils Mönkemeyer

7 March: Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Mario Venzago, Mozart KV 271 “Jeunhomme”

24 April: Bösendorfer Piano Series Amsterdam, Bach Goldberg Variations

6 May: Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Ensemble Resonanz, Nils Mönkemeyer, Première double concerto by Manfred Trojahn

23, 24 May: Opening concerts & start residency Mozartfest Würzburg, Trojahn Double Concerto with Ensemble Rezonanz

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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