Yeol Eum Son

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.[1]

She 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 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.[2]

Her awards include Silver Medals at both the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009 and the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011, where she also received the Best Chamber Concerto Performance and the Best Performance of the Commissioned Work prizes. She also won the Bronze Medal at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition (2005) [3]

Son has performed as soloist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra, Russian State Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra and many others.

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

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

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 will record the Ravel piano concertos with the orchestra.

Son's recording 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.[6] Marriner and Son had planned to record the complete Mozart concertos.[7]

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.[8] This was compiled as a book in 2015.[9]

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. She engaged many renowned solo musicians from around the world to participate in the festival.

• 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[10]
• 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, Silver Medal, Best Chamber Concerto (Mozart Concerto) Performance, Best Performance of the Commissioned Work (by Rodion Shchedrin) XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition[11]

• 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)[12]
• 2016: "Modern Times: Berg, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Ravel" (Decca Classics)[13]
• 2018: "Mozart: Piano Concerto No.21 K467 / Sonata No.10 K330" (Onyx Classics)[14]
• 2020: "Schumann: Fantasy in C – Kreisleriana – Arabesque" (Onyx Classics)[15]
• 2021: "Kapustin" (Onyx Classics)[16]
• 2023: "Mozart: Complete Piano Sonatas" (Naïve Records)[17]

• Official website