Unsuk Chin ( ; born July 14, 1961) is a South Korean

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is Western art music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st-century classical music, 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 Modernism (music), post-tonal music after the death of ...

, who is based in Berlin, Germany. Chin was a self-taught pianist from a young age and studied composition at

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the SKY (universities), SKY universities and a part of the Flagship Korean National Universities. The university's main c ...

as well as with

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde music, avant-garde composers in the latter half of the ...

at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. The recipient of numerous awards, she won the 2004 Grawemeyer Award for her Violin Concerto No. 1, the 2010 Music Composition Prize of the Prince Pierre Foundation for the ensemble piece ''Gougalōn'' and the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2024. In 2019, writers of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' ranked her Cello Concerto (2009) the 11th greatest work of art music since 2000, with Andrew Clements describing it as "perhaps the most original and entertainingly disconcerting of all of er concertos cast in four brilliant movements that never quite conform to type".

Biography

Unsuk Chin was born in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, South Korea. She studied composition with Sukhi Kang at

and won several international prizes in her early 20s. In 1985, Chin won the Gaudeamus Foundation located in Amsterdam, with her piece ''Spektra'' for three celli, which was composed for her graduation project. She also received an academic grant to study in Germany, where she moved that same year. There she studied with

at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg from 1985 to 1988. In 1988, Chin worked as a freelance composer at the

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

studio of

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...

, releasing seven works. Her first electronic piece was ''Gradus ad Infinitum'', which was composed in 1989. Her first large orchestral piece, ''Die Troerinnen'' (1986, rev.1990), for women's voices, was premiered by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990. In 1991, her breakthrough work ''Acrostic Wordplay'' was premiered by the Nieuw Ensemble. Since then, it has been performed in more than 20 countries in Europe, Asia and North America. Chin's collaboration with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, which has led to several commissions from them, started in 1994 with ''Fantaisie mecanique''. Since 1995, Chin has been published exclusively by

Boosey & Hawkes Boosey & Hawkes is a British Music publisher (sheet music), music publisher, purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass instrument, brass, string instru ...

. In 1999, Chin began an artistic collaboration with

Kent Nagano Kent George Nagano (born November 22, 1951) is an American conductor and opera administrator. Since 2015, he has been ''Generalmusikdirektor'' (GMD) of the Hamburg State Opera (until 2025). Early life and education Nagano was born in Berkeley, ...

, who has since premiered six of her works. Chin's Violin Concerto No. 1 was awarded the 2004 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. It was premiered in 2002 by Viviane Hagner. Since then, it has been programmed in 14 countries in Europe, Asia and North America, and performed, among others, by Christian Tetzlaff, the

Berlin Philharmonic The Berlin Philharmonic () is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world. Throughout the 20th century, the orchestra was led by conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler (1922� ...

and Simon Rattle in 2005. In 2007, she was awarded the Kyung-Ahm Prize. Chin's works have been performed by orchestras around the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New Yo ...

, the

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891, the ensemble has been based in the Symphony Center since 1904 and plays a summer season at the Ravinia F ...

, the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is a British orchestra based in London. One of five permanent symphony orchestras in London, the LPO was founded by the conductors Thomas Beecham, Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a riv ...

, the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. The orchestra holds a regular concert season from October until June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from ...

, and many others. Her works have been conducted by

, Simon Rattle, Alan Gilbert, Gustavo Dudamel, Myung-whun Chung,

Esa-Pekka Salonen Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish conducting, conductor and composer. He is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Sw ...

Neeme Järvi Neeme Järvi (; born 7 June 1937) is an Estonian Americans, Estonian American conductor. Early life Järvi was born in Tallinn. He initially studied music there, and later in Saint Petersburg, Leningrad at the Leningrad Conservatory under Yevge ...

, Péter Eötvös, David Robertson and George Benjamin. Chin's music has been highlighted at the 2014 Lucerne Festival, the Festival Musica in Strasbourg, the Suntory Summer Festival, the 2013 Stockholm Concert Hall's Tonsätterfestival and at Settembre Musica in Italy. In 2001/2002, she was appointed composer-in-residence at Deutschen Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Chin was closely associated with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra from 2006 to 2017, at invitation from Myung-whun Chung, as their composer-in-residence and director of their Ars Nova Series for contemporary music, which she founded herself and in which more than 200 Korean premieres of central works of classical modernism and contemporary music were being presented. Chin later became the orchestra's artistic adviser. From 2011 to 2020, she oversaw the London-based Philharmonia Orchestra's Music of Today series at the invitation of its then chief conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. Chin has been appointed Artistic Director of the Tongyeong International Music Festival from 2022 onwards.

Style

Chin does not regard her music as belonging to any specific culture. Chin names

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

Anton Webern Anton Webern (; 3 December 1883 – 15 September 1945) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and musicologist. His music was among the most radical of its milieu in its lyric poetry, lyrical, poetic concision and use of then novel atonality, aton ...

, Iannis Xenakis, and

, among others, as 20th-century composers of special importance for her. Chin regards her working experience with

and her preoccupation with

Bali Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...

nese

Gamelan Gamelan (; ; , ; ) is the traditional musical ensemble, ensemble music of the Javanese people, Javanese, Sundanese people, Sundanese, and Balinese people, Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussion instrument, per ...

as influential for her work. In her orchestral work ''Miroirs des temps'', Chin has also used compositional concepts of Medieval composers, such as Machaut and Ciconia, by employing and evolving techniques such as musical

palindrome A palindrome (Help:IPA/English, /ˈpæl.ɪn.droʊm/) is a word, palindromic number, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date "Twosday, 02/02/2020" and th ...

s and crab canons. The texts of Chin's vocal music are often based on experimental poetry, and occasionally they are self-referential, employing techniques such as acrostics, anagrams and palindromes, all of which are also reflected in the compositional structure. Consequently, Chin has set music to poems by writers such as Inger Christensen, Harry Mathews, Gerhard Rühm or Unica Zürn into music, and the title of ''Cantatrix Sopranica'' is derived from a nonsense treatise by

Georges Perec Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Ho ...

. However, in ''Kalá'', Chin has also composed works with less experimental texts by writers such as Gunnar Ekelöf, Paavo Haavikko, and Arthur Rimbaud. ''Troerinnen'' is based on a play by

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

, and ''Le silence des Sirènes'' juxtaposes texts by

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

and

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

. Playful aspects are dominant also in Chin's opera ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

'', which is based on Lewis Carroll's classic of the same name. The opera's libretto was written by David Henry Hwang and the composer. The Munich production, which has been released on DVD by Unitel, was directed by Achim Freyer, and it was selected 'Premiere of the Year' by an international critics' poll conducted in 2007 by the German opera magazine ''Opernwelt''. Some of Chin's works are influenced by extramusical associations and other art genres, such as her orchestral work '' Rocaná'' which alludes to Olafur Elíasson's installations, or her ensemble works ''Graffiti'' and ''cosmigimmicks'', the latter of which was influenced by the art of pantomime and by

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

Selected works

Awards and prizes

Portrait CDs and DVDs

* Unsuk Chin: ''Akrostichon – Wortspiel and other works''. ensemble intercontemporain. CD.

Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...

, 2005 * Unsuk Chin: ''Alice in Wonderland''. Bayerische Staatsoper,

. DVD. Unitel, 2008 * Unsuk Chin: ''Rocaná, Violin Concerto''. Viviane Hagner, Kent Nagano,

Montreal Symphony Orchestra The Montreal Symphony Orchestra () is a Canadian symphony orchestra based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The orchestra’s home is the Montreal Symphony House at Place des Arts. History Several orchestras were precursor ensembles to the curren ...

. CD. Analekta, 2009. * Unsuk Chin: ''Xi and other works''. (reissue of ''Akrostichon – Wortspiel'' CD). ensemble intercontemporain. CD.

Kairos ''Kairos'' () is an ancient Greek language, Greek word meaning 'the right or critical moment'. In modern Greek, ''kairos'' also means 'weather' or 'time'. It is one of two words that the ancient Greeks had for 'time'; the other being (). ...

, 2011. * Unsuk Chin: ''Three Concertos''. Myung-whun Chung, Alban Gerhardt, Sunwook Kim,

Wu Wei ''Wu wei'' () is a polysemous, ancient Chinese concept expressing an ideal dao, practice of "inaction", "inexertion" or "effortless action", as a state of personal harmony and free-flowing, spontaneous Improvisation, creative manifestation. In a ...

, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. CD. Deutsche Grammophon, 2014

Other selected recordings

* Spektra für drei Celli. In: ''Ladder of Escape 6''. Taco Kooistra, Viola de Hoog, Eduard van Regteren Altena. CD. ATTACCA, 1992 * Allegro ma non troppo. In: ''Fifty Years Studio TU Berlin''. EMF Media, DVD 054, 2008 * Cantatrix Sopranica. In: ''Sprechgesänge – Speech Songs''. musikFabrik, Stefan Asbury. CD. WERGO, 2010. * cosmigimmicks. In: "Dokumentation Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik 2013". Celso Antunes, Nieuw Ensemble. CD. WDR, 2013 * Fantaisie mécanique. In: "Euclidian Abyss". Vimbayi Kaziboni, Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie. CD. Ensemble Modern Records, 2013 * Gougalōn. In: "Contact! 2012–13 season". Alan Gilbert,

. Mp3-CD. New York Philharmonic Records, 2013 * Six Piano Etudes. Mei Yi Foo. In: ''Musical Toys''. CD. Odradek Records, 2012 * Six Piano Etudes. Yejin Gil. In: "Fulgurances". CD. Solstice, 2013 * Advice from a Caterpiller, bass clarinet solo 2007 '(from Alice in Wonderland). Fie Schouten, CD ''Ladder of Escape 11'' ATT2014140 * Six Piano Etudes. Clare Hammond. In: "Etude". CD. BIS, 2014 * ParaMetaString. Esmé Quartet. In: "To Be Loved". CD. Alpha, 2020

References

External links

"Unsuk Chin"

* , Mei Yi Foo * http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/unsuk-chin
Documentary: ''Unsuk Chin on Unsuk Chin''

"Classical music – just give children the chance to love it"
by Unsuk Chin, ''

'', October 22, 2015
Hanno Ehrler: ''Ordnung, Chaos und Computer – Die Komponistin Unsuk Chin''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chin, Unsuk 1961 births Living people Musicians from Seoul South Korean expatriates in Germany 21st-century South Korean classical composers 20th-century South Korean classical composers Deutsche Grammophon artists South Korean women classical composers Gaudeamus Composition Competition prize-winners Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg alumni Seoul National University alumni South Korean opera composers German opera composers Women opera composers 20th-century South Korean women composers 21st-century women composers Recipients of the Ho-Am Prize in the Arts Pupils of György Ligeti

Biography

Style

Selected works

Awards and prizes

Portrait CDs and DVDs

Other selected recordings

References

Further reading

External links