Yeol Eum Son

Yeol Eum Son (Korean: 손열음; born May 2, 1986) is a world renowned^[1] South Korean classical pianist. She is an interpreter of the Classical era of composers, especially Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, as well as such later composers as Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Ravel. Over the past fifteen years, Son has achieved global acclaim for her performances of Mozart’s piano concertos.^[2]

Son has performed as soloist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and with such conductors as Lorin Maazel, Sir Neville Marriner, Valery Gergiev, Sir Antonio Pappano, and Jaap van Zweden.

Son was born in Wonju, South Korea.

Son took her first piano lesson at the age of three and a half. She made a recital debut on Kumho Prodigy Concert Series in July 1998. At the age of twelve, she started studying with pianist Kim Dae-jin. At age sixteen, she entered the Korea National University of Arts to continue her piano studies. At the age of 18, she recorded the complete Chopin Etudes (Op. 10 and Op. 25) for a CD on the Universal Music Label.^[3]

In 2006, she began studying with Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik und Theatre, in Hannover, Germany, where she currently resides.^[4][5]

Son was awarded the Silver Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011. At the Tchaikovsky Competition she also received the Best Chamber Concerto Performance and the Best Performance of the Commissioned Work prizes. The video of her performance of the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 at the Tchaikovsky Competition has received an estimated 23 million online views, considered a record for a live Mozart performance.^[6]

She had earlier won the Silver Medal at the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009. In that same competition, she won the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber Music.

Son had also won the Bronze Medal at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition (2005).^[7]

Son has performed as soloist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra,^[8] the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields,^[9] the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic,^[10] the BBC Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra,^[11] the Aurora Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Mariinsky Orchestra of St. Petersburg, the Russian State Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Basel Symphony Orchestra,^[12] Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, RTVE Symphony Orchestra (Orquesta Sinfónica de Radio Televisión Española) Madrid, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the KBS Symphony Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra,^[13] the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa, Canada, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra^[14] and many others.

Son has collaborated with distinguished conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Sir Neville Marriner, Valery Gergiev, Sir Antonio Pappano, Jaap van Zweden, Yuri Bashmet, Vasily Petrenko, Omer Meir Wellber, Edo de Waart, Susanna Mälkki, Ivan Fischer, Mikko Franck, Karel Mark Chichon, Myung-whun Chung, Krzysztof Urbański, Alexander Shelley, James Conlon, Jun Märkl, Lawrence Foster, Dmitri Kitayenko, Ludovic Morlot, Andrew Manze, Pietari Inkinen, Ryan Bancroft, Jonathon Heyward, Joana Carneiro, Giordano Bellincampi and many others.

Son first drew international attention in October 2004 at age 18 when she appeared as a soloist performing Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Lorin Maazel on their Asia tour in Seoul, Daejeon, and Tokyo. Son again performed with Maazel and the New York Philharmonic when they returned to the Seoul Arts Center in February 2008, this time as soloist for Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2.^[15]

Son's recording in 2016 of the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields was the final recording of Sir Neville and has been widely praised.^[16] Son composed her own cadenzas for this concerto. The recording was released on the Onyx label in 2018.^[17] Marriner and Son had planned to record the complete Mozart concertos.^[18] Son performed the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 in Seoul in 2017 as a memorial to Sir Neville Marriner.^[19]

In 2019, Son made her debut at the BBC Proms festival at the Royal Albert Hall performing the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 15 with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Omer Meir Wellber.^[20]

In November 2020, Son performed the Beethoven Kreuzer Sonata with violinist Svetlin Roussev.^[21]

In September 2021, Son performed the Beethoven Emperor Concerto with Pietari Inkinen and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern in a broadcast event.^[22]

In November 2022, Son performed the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 with the NDR Radiophilharmonie conducted by Andrew Manze in a broadcast event.^[23]

In that same month, she performed the Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand with Pablo Urbina conducting the Orquesta Sinfónica y Coro RTVE in Madrid.^[24] Son had performed the Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major with the same orchestra in the previous season with Pablo González as conductor.^[25]

In the season 2022–2023, she was artist in residence with Residentie Orkest (The Hague Philharmonic), Amare concert hall The Hague and Royal Conservatory of The Hague and recorded the Ravel piano concertos with the orchestra.^[26]

In December 2022 Son performed the Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jonathon Heyward.^[27]

In February 2023 Son's recordings of the complete Mozart Piano Sonatas were released on the Naive label. These met with enthusiastic critical response and the release was named Classic FM Album of the Week.^[28]

Son participated in the 2023 Rosendal Chamber Music Festival in Norway which featured chamber music of Brahms. She collaborated with violinist James Ehnes in the festival's opening performance, Brahms Violin and Piano Sonata No. 1.^[29][30][31] Later in the festival she performed the Brahms Clarinet and Piano Sonata No. 2 with clarinetist Sharon Kam. Also the Brahms Piano Trio No. 2 Op. 87 with violinist Ehnes and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, of which a reviewer wrote that "on came the dream team of James Ehnes (violin) Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello) and Yoel-Eum Son (piano)...It was the best performance in the festival so far." "Son’s ravishing solo piano phrases lit up the second movement. The third movement scherzo was lightening fast and tighter than Count Basie’s rhythm section! The three musicians could be seen enjoying and appreciating each other’s playing more and more as they progressed. It was a very special performance. Five stars!"^[32][33] Son also performed the Brahms F-A-E Scherzo for violin and piano with the violinist Svetlin Roussev.^[34]

Son gave a recital at the 2023 Edinburgh Festival performing the Beethoven Hammerklavier Sonata in an acclaimed BBC broadcast concert.^[35][36][37]

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Rachmaninoff's birth, Son and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern conducted by Pietari Inkinen toured in September 2023 in eight concerts mostly in South Korea featuring the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto.^[38]

On 28 October 2023 Son performed Liszt's Totentanz with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano.^[39][40] One critic wrote of Son's achievement with Pappano and the LSO that "...we heard Yeol Eum Son in Liszt's Totentanz. "Tour de force" could equally have been its title, for it makes huge demands on the soloist. It seemed, however, that Yeol Eum Son hardly noticed, so complete was her control over Liszt's taxing variations. It was a superb performance."^[41]

Son's debut with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and music director Otto Tausk in the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in November 2023 elicited a review that "her patrician elegance and clean, sharply-chiseled performance were exemplary...very much in the spirit of Mozart's era."^[42]

Son performed the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 with the National Arts Centre Orchestra conducted by Joana Carneiro in Ottawa in June 2024.^[43][44]

In December 2024, Son performs the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jonathon Heyward.

Son will perform the Bartók Piano Concerto No. 3 in March 2025 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Roberto Gonzalez-Monjas.

From 25-27 April 2025 she will perform the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 24 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ryan Bancroft.

In May 2025, she will perform the Ravel Piano Concerto in G major in Ottawa with the National Arts Centre Orchestra conducted by Alexander Shelley at the National Arts Centre and the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22 in Toronto with the National Arts Centre Orchestra conducted by Alexander Shelley at Roy Thomson Hall as part of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra regular season series.^[45]

In a very wide repertoire, she is acclaimed in the performance of music from the Classical era (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven) as well as many other composers such as Schumann, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt,^[46] Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Gershwin,^[47] Bartók, Stravinsky,^[48] Prokofiev, Shostakovich and recent composers.

Her performance style is characterized by clarity of texture and of melodic lines and by expressive authenticity.

Son held the position of Artistic Director of Music in PyeongChang, one of South Korea's largest classical music festivals, from 2018 to 2022. She was acclaimed for her creative and innovative programming and Son engaged many renowned solo musicians from around the world to participate in the festival.

Son had been and continued to be a frequent performer at the festival, including in such works as the Brahms Piano Quartet in C minor,^[49] the Rachmaninoff Cello and Piano Sonata in G minor Op. 19,^[50] the Ravel Piano Trio,^[51] the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22, performing her own cadenzas,^[52][53] and the Bartók Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion.^[54]

Beginning May 2010, she wrote a monthly column for JoongAng Sunday, the Sunday edition of JoongAng Ilbo, one of Korea's most widely read newspapers.^[55] This was compiled as a book in 2015.^[56]

On 20 May 2024, Son was awarded the Grand Prize of the Daewon Music Awards for 2024.^[57] The Daewon Awards recognize great achievement in the performing arts for classical music in South Korea.

• 1997: 2nd Prize, International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians
• 1999: 1st Prize, Oberlin International Piano Competition
• 2001: 1st Prize, The 7th Ettlingen Piano Competition
• 2002: 1st Prize, 53rd Viotti International Music Competition
• 2005: 3rd Prize, Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition. Finalist, XV International Chopin Piano Competition
• 2008: 1st Prize, Piano Competition Kissinger Klavierolymp, related to the festival Kissinger Sommer^[58]
• 2009: Silver Medal and Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber Music (shared with Evgeni Bozhanov), Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
• 2011: 2nd Prize overall, Silver Medal, also winner Best Chamber Concerto (Mozart Concerto) Performance, winner Best Performance of the Commissioned Work (by Rodion Shchedrin) XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition^[59]

• 2004: "Chopin: 24 Etudes" (Universal Music)
• 2008: "Chopin: Nocturnes for Piano and Orchestra" (Universal Music)
• 2009: "13th Van Cliburn Competition: Yeol Eum Son, Silver Medalist" (Harmonia Mundi)
• 2012: "Yeol Eum Son, Piano" (O'new World Music)
• 2016: "Schumann & Brahms: Sonatas, Romances" (Decca Classics)^[60]
• 2016: "Modern Times: Berg, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Ravel" (Decca Classics)^[61]
• 2018: "Mozart: Piano Concerto No.21 K467 / Sonata No.10 K330" (Onyx Classics)^[62]
• 2020: "Schumann: Fantasy in C – Kreisleriana – Arabesque" (Onyx Classics)^[63]
• 2021: "Kapustin" (Onyx Classics)^[64]
• 2023: "Mozart: Complete Piano Sonatas" (Naïve Records)^[65]

• Official website