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Unsuk Chin

b. 1961

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Unsuk Chin was born in Seoul, studied with Ligeti in Hamburg, and is now resident in Berlin * Winner of the 2004 Grawemeyer Award for her Violin Concerto * Her output features both electronic and acoustic scores * Music is modern in language, but lyrical and non-doctrinaire in communicative power * Acute ear for instrumentation, orchestral colour, and rhythmic imagery * Acrostic-Wordplay has been performed by ensembles in Europe, Asia and North America * Interpreters include the Ensemble InterContemporain, Ensemble Modern, Kronos Quartet, pianist Rolf Hind, violinist Viviane Hagner, and conductors Kent Nagano, Simon Rattle and George Benjamin * Works recorded in Deutsche Grammophon's 20/21 series * Composer in Residence with Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra 2006-08 * was awarded the Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis in 2007

Works by Unsuk Chin include:
Acrostic-Wordplay (1991/93) for soprano and ensemble
Violin Concerto (2001) for violin and orchestra
Double Concerto (2002) for piano, percussion and ensemble

Looking Ahead: UK premiere of Xi by BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ivan Volkov (10 Apr); performances of new orchestral piece Rocana by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano (24-26 Apr)

"My music is a reflection of my dreams. I try to render into music the visions of immense light and of an incredible magnificence of colours that I see in all my dreams, a play of light and colours floating through the room and at the same time forming a fluid sound sculpture. Its beauty is very abstract and remote, but it is for these very qualities that it addresses the emotions and can communicate joy and warmth." — Unsuk Chin, 2003

"a formidable ear for sonority and for mining the expressive potential of the slightest nuances of pitch and pulse." — The Guardian

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