Yeol Eum Son, piano
Sunday, January 22, 2012 | 4:00pm
Photo: Associated Press
Pianist Yeol Eum Son, who graciously stepped in to replace Haochen Zhang when he was unable to make the concert (and who gave us a breathtakingly brilliant performance), was awarded both the Silver Medal and the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber Music in the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition held in Fort Worth, Texas in June 2009. More recently, she was awarded the second prize at the XIV Tchaikovsky International Music Competiton in Moscow, where she also received awards for Best Chamber Orchestra Performance and Best Performance of the Commissioned Work.
A native of South Korea's Kangwon Province, Yeol-Eum made her debut in the Kumho Prodigy Concert Series in July 1998. She drew international attention when she appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Lorin Maazel, performing Beethoven's Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 19 on the Philharmonic's historic tour to Seoul in 2008. She had previously performed Liszt's Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major with the Philharmonic under Maestro Maazel in Daejeon and Tokyo in 2004
Photo: Do-hyoung Kim
A favorite among international orchestras, Ms. Son has appeared with the Israel Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonuic and Warsaw Philharmonic as well as the Russian National Orchestra and Mariinsky Orchestra in Russia, NHK Symphony and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in Japan, and the Jeruselem Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to her achievments at the Cliburn and Tchaikosky Competitions, Ms. Son was the first place winner in Italy's 2002 Viotti International Music Competition, as well as the winner of Germany's Kissinger Klavierolympiade in Bad-Kissingen and the 2000 Ettlingen International Piano Competitoon.
Yeol Eum Son currently studies with Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover in Germany, where she now makes her home. She holds a degree from the Korean National University of the Arts, where she studied with Dae Jin Kim. She has also studied with Cheng-Zong Yin, one of China's most prominent pianists.
PROGRAM
- Shumann: Humoreske in B-flat major, Op. 20
- Liszt: Spanish Rhapsody
- Tchaikosky: Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 40,No. 8
- Tchaikosky: Nocturen in F major, Op. 10
- Tchaikosky: Polka from the Children's Album, Op. 39
- Tchaikosky: "Schezo" from the Symphony No. 6, transcribed by Feinberg
- Kapustin: Variations, Op. 41
RECORDINGS
Click on the album image below to purchase her van Cliburn album from Amazon.com.
In addition, individual MP3 tracks of her performances can be purchased and downloaded from Amazon.com here.