Unsuk Chin: prizes for Gougalon and Cello Concerto
(December 2010)
Unsuk Chin has won a Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco prize for Gougalon, and a British Composer Award for her Cello Concerto.Unsuk Chin has enjoyed double prize success this autumn with awards for her ensemble work Gougalon and for her Cello Concerto premiered at the BBC Proms in 2009. In September the composer travelled to Monte Carlo to receive the 2010 Music Composition Prize of the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco for her 2009 ensemble work Gougalon, inspired by Korean street theatre. The prize of 15,000 euros was presented by Princess Caroline, and discussions are underway for a commissioned new work to be premiered in Monte Carlo in a future season.
Gougalon was commissioned by Ensemble Modern and the Siemens Arts Program and was premiered at the Konzerthaus in Berlin in October 2009 by Ensemble Modern conducted by Johannes Kalitzke. Since then the piece has travelled to Frankfurt, Essen, Riga, Seoul, Monte Carlo and Hong Kong. Its UK premiere is scheduled at the Barbican in London on 9 April when the London Sinfonietta performs the work under the baton of Stefan Asbury as part of the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Total Immersion day devoted to the composer.
Prince Rainier III created the Fondation Prince Pierre in 1966 in tribute to his father, who dedicated his life to Fine Arts and the Humanities. Today, Prince Rainier's daughter, Princess Caroline of Hanover, is president of the foundation, which is dedicated to promoting contemporary art in the very broadest sense.
In November Chin received the British Composer Award for her Cello Concerto, winning from a field of works selected in the International category . The British Composer Awards are presented by The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and sponsored by PRS for Music, with the awards ceremony broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
The Cello Concerto was premiered at the 2009 Proms by soloist Alban Gerhardt and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov. Gerhardt has since performed the concerto with the Tampere Philharmonic and the Residentie Orkest in The Hague and Amsterdam. Performances scheduled for 2011 include the US, Korean and German premieres.
The two prizes are the latest in a series of prestigious accolades for Chin including the Grawemeyer Prize for her Violin Concerto and the Arnold Schoenberg Prize.
Music of Today appointment
Unsuk Chin was recently announced by Esa-Pekka Salonen as the new Artistic Director of the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Music of Today series of contemporary concerts in London. Chin succeeds James MacMillan and Julian Anderson in this role, and her first season begins in September 2011. She continues as composer-in-residence with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic Director of its contemporary music series.
> Further information on Work: Gougalon
Photo: Weonki Kim
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