Cellist Sung-Won Yang has
performed throughout the world as a soloist and chamber musician. He has given
solo and chamber music concerts in such prestigious venues as Alice Tully Hall
at Lincoln Center in New York, the Salle Pleyel and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
in Paris, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Terrace Theater at the Kennedy
Center in Washington D.C., the Musikverein in Vienna, the Opera City Hall in
Tokyo, Symphony Hall in Osaka and the National Center for the Per -forming Arts
in Beijing. His recitals have also taken him to other leading cities, such as
London, Rome, Frankfurt, Madrid, Prague, Helsinki, Boston, Seattle, Tel Aviv,
Shanghai, Sydney and many others.
While an exclusive artist for
EMI-Korea, his first album, entirely devoted to Kodály, was picked as both an
“Editor’s Choice of the Month” and a “Critic’s Choice of the Year” in Gramophonemagazine(February and
December 2003). He was also nominated for Best Solo Album in the Edison Awards
in the Netherlands (2003). His other recordings for EMI include works by
Rachmaninov and Chopin with the pianist Ick-Choo Moon (2002), Bach’s complete
suites for solo cello (2005) and Beethoven’s complete sonatas and variations
for piano and cello with pianist Pascal Devoyon (2007). These recordings were
all received with great acclaim from music-lovers and critics alike. Since his
Schubert album with violinist Olivier Charlier and pianist Emmanuel Strosser
appeared on the Decca label in 2009, his recent recordings have included
Dvorˇák’s “Dumky” Trio and Cello Concerto with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
and conductor Zdeneˇk Mácal (2010); Musical Getaway, an album combining jazz,
Latin music and la
variété française with
the ensemble Les Bons Becs (2011); and the complete works for cello and piano
by Brahms and Schumann with Enrico Pace (2014).
Sung-Won Yang has
collaborated with such great musicians as Christoph Eschenbach, Myung-Whun
Chung, Peter Eötvös, Johannes Kalitzke, Laurent Petitgirard, Dong-Suk Kang and
Pascal Devoyon. His interpretations of Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto, Brahms’s
Double Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme with the Orchestre symphonique français
were broadcast by French TV in France and by Eurovision throughout Europe, and
are available on DVD (Goldline Classics). In addition, many of his live
concerts have been broadcast by France Musique, NHK (Japan), KBS (Korea) and
other radio networks.
A regular performer of
contemporary music, Sung-Won Yang gave the Asian premiere of Peter
Eötvös’s Cello Concerto Grosso, with the composer
conducting the Seoul Philharmonic, and also its Austrian premiere in Vienna
with the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien. He also regularly
commissions new works by
young composers, including two piano trios by Korean composer Min-Jae Jeon
(2014 and 2016), a piano trio by French composer Pierre Charvet (2006) and a
trio featuring the daegeum (a traditional Korean wooden flute) by the
Korean-American composer Jeeyoung Kim (2006). These works were premiered by
Sung-Won Yang in Paris, Saint-Nazaire and Seoul.
Born in Korea, Sung-Won Yang
graduated from the Paris Conservatoire and was assistant to János Starker at
Indiana University in the USA. He has been invited to join the juries for the
Banff International String Quartet Competition in Canada, the André Navarra
International Cello
Competition in France, the
Gaspar Cassado International Violoncello Competition in Japan and the
Tongyeong International
Competition in Korea. Recipient of numerous awards, he is currently a
professor of cello at Yonsei
University in Seoul, visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London
and Artistic Director of the Festival Owon at Château de la Bourdaisière in
France.