yejingil

Yejin Gil

Yejin Gil is an outstanding, award-winning pianist. She combines technical brilliance with musical depth and the uncompromising pursuit of artistic authenticity. The main emphasis of her work is put both on the classical and romantic repertoire as well as on the music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her brilliant debut CD with works by Chin, Ligeti, Boulez and Messiaen won the “Coup de Coeur” 2014 of the Académie Charles Cros, one of the major critics awards in France, and filled listeners worldwide with enthusiasm: “Gil has the fingers to articulate the densest, fast-moving passages in such music with dazzling precision, but everything she does is also perceptive and utterly musical, none of the wit in either set eluding her.” (The Guardian)

Over the past years, she has been working together with composers such as Unsuk Chin, Pierre Boulez, Philippe Hurel, Heiner Goebbels, Helmut Oehring, Martin Matalon or Oscar Strasnoy and performed with conductors such as Kent Nagano, Hans Rotman, Steven Sloane, Alexander Merzyn, Joseph Bousso, with orchestras/ensembles such as the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, Bochumer Symphoniker, MDR Synfonieorchester, the Philharmonisches Orchester des Staatstheaters Cottbus, Berliner Symphoniker, Staatskapelle Halle, Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau, the Magdeburgische Philharmonie, 1B1 Ensemble, Seoul Chamber Ensemble, Percussions de Strasbourg, Ensemble Court-Circuit and Zafraan Ensemble, as well as chamber music projects with Jörg Widmann, Matthias Schorn, Jan Bjøranger, Nora Chastain, Daniel Röhn, Martin Funda, Lars Anders Tomter, David Adorján, Torleif Thedéen, Martin Löhr, øyvind Gimse and Zvi Plesser.

In 2014, she was featured as “Artist in Residence” at the Impuls Festival in Brussels, Berlin, Magdeburg and Halle, playing Bernstein’s piano concerto “The Age of Anxiety” among other pieces, and was broadcasted live on MDR. By the end of 2015, her second CD was released with a pure Mussorgsky programme, which could be experienced at a series of recitals in France and Germany. Additionally, her Scriabin album which was released in 2017 by the label bastille musique was nominated for the German Record Critics and International Classical Music Awards award.

In an international context, Yejin Gil has appeared as a soloist at events such as the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Thüringer Bachwochen, the Klavier Festival Ruhr, Kasseler Musiktage, IFCP Festival New York, Frontiers Plus Birmingham, Young Euro Classic Berlin, International Piano Festival La Roque d’Anthéron, Acanthes Festival Metz, Tongyeong International Music Festival, The Reflective Musician Oslo, Stavanger Chambermusic Festival, Encuentros Buenos Aires, Festival de Sully et du Loiret or Choriner Musiksommer and has performed in concert series and venues such as the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Essen Philharmonie, Duisburg Philharmonie, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Salle Cortot Paris, Weimarhalle, Konzerthaus Berlin and Seoul Arts Center. She regularly gives the seminars and masterclasses in Germany, USA, UK, France and Italy and works as a Jury at the international competitions.

Yejin Gil began her piano studies at the age of five years. Upon successful completion at the Seoul National University, the leading conservatory in Korea, she moved to Germany where she studied, supported by a grant of the Lions Club, at the Folkwang University Essen graduating the diploma and Konzertexamen with honors. During her studies she also participated successfully at selected competitions, including the Korea National Competition (first prize) , the Köhler-Osbahr-Wettbewerb (first prize) and the Orléans Concours International (winner and only finalist with four main prizes: Prix Nadia Boulanger, Prix Albert Roussel, Prix Sacem, Prix Hitachi and special prize for the best interpretation of Philippe Hurels piece “Interstices”). Yejin Gil lives and works in Berlin.