Unsuk Chin
b. 1961
Snapshot
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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 and the 2005 Arnold Schoenberg prize * 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 * Works performed worldwide by major orchestras, contemporary music ensembles and interpreters * Championed by conductors Kent Nagano, Simon Rattle, Peter Eötvös, David Robertson, Myung-Whun Chung and George Benjamin, and violinists Christian Tetzlaff and Viviane Hagner * Performed by Bavarian State Opera, Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and China Philharmonic * Programmed by contemporary music ensembles such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern and Kronos Quartet * Music recorded in Deutsche Grammophon's 20/21 series and Alice in Wonderland opera available on Unitel DVD * Composer-in-residence with Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic Director of its Contemporary Music Series since 2006
Works by Unsuk Chin include:
Acrostic–Wordplay (1991/93) for soprano and ensemble
Violin Concerto (2001) for violin and orchestra
Alice in Wonderland (2004-07) Opera in eight scenes
Looking Ahead: US premiere of sheng concerto Šu by Wu Wei and Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel (9 Oct); world premiere of gougalon (scenes at a street theatre) in Berlin by Ensemble Modern (9 Oct); Composer in Residence at Philharmonie Essen (2009/10 season); Swiss premiere production of Alice in Wonderland in Geneva (Jun 2010)
"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
"a formidable ear for sonority and for mining the expressive potential of the slightest nuances of pitch and pulse." — The Guardian
