Unsuk Chin facts for kids

Unsuk Chin (Korean: 진은숙 [tɕin ɯn.suk]; born July 14, 1961) is a famous South Korean composer. She writes contemporary classical music, which is a modern style of classical music. Unsuk Chin lives in Berlin, Germany.

From a young age, Chin taught herself to play the piano. She later studied music at Seoul National University. She also learned from the well-known composer György Ligeti in Hamburg, Germany.

Unsuk Chin has won many important awards. In 2004, she received the Grawemeyer Award for her Violin Concerto No. 1. This is a big honor in music. In 2010, she won the Music Composition Prize of the Prince Pierre Foundation. More recently, in 2024, she was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize. Her Cello Concerto, written in 2009, is considered one of the greatest music pieces since 2000. People describe it as very original and exciting.

Biography

Unsuk Chin was born in Seoul, South Korea. She studied composition with Sukhi Kang at Seoul National University. When she was in her early twenties, she won several international prizes. In 1985, Chin won a prize from the Gaudeamus Foundation in Amsterdam for her piece Spektra. This piece was part of her graduation project.

That same year, she received a scholarship to study in Germany. She moved there and studied with György Ligeti from 1985 to 1988.

Early Career and Breakthrough

In 1988, Chin started working as a composer at an electronic music studio in Berlin. She created seven electronic music pieces there. Her first electronic work was Gradus ad Infinitum in 1989. Her first large orchestral piece, Die Troerinnen, was performed in 1990.

In 1991, her important work Acrostic Wordplay was first performed. Since then, it has been played in over 20 countries across Europe, Asia, and North America. Chin began working with the Ensemble Intercontemporain in 1994. This led to them asking her to write several new pieces. Since 1995, her music has been published by Boosey & Hawkes. In 1999, Chin started working with conductor Kent Nagano, who has premiered many of her works.

Major Recognition

Chin's Violin Concerto No. 1 won the 2004 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. It was first performed in 2002 by Viviane Hagner. Since then, it has been played in 14 countries. Famous orchestras like the Berlin Philharmonic and conductors like Simon Rattle have performed it.

In 2007, she received the Kyung-Ahm Prize.

Chin's music has been performed by many top orchestras worldwide. These include the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Her works have been conducted by famous musicians like Kent Nagano, Simon Rattle, and Gustavo Dudamel. Her music has also been featured at major festivals, such as the 2014 Lucerne Festival. From 2001 to 2002, she was a composer-in-residence for the Deutschen Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.

Leadership Roles

From 2006 to 2017, Chin worked closely with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. She was their composer-in-residence and directed their Ars Nova Series. She created this series to present new and modern classical music. Over 200 Korean premieres of important contemporary works were performed there. Later, she became the orchestra's artistic adviser.

From 2011 to 2020, she also oversaw the Philharmonia Orchestra's Music of Today series in London. Since 2022, Chin has been the Artistic Director of the Tongyeong International Music Festival.

Style of Music

Unsuk Chin does not believe her music belongs to just one culture. She finds inspiration from many places. She names composers like Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, and her teacher György Ligeti as very important to her.

Influences and Techniques

Chin's experience with electronic music has greatly influenced her work. She is also inspired by Balinese Gamelan music, which uses special percussion instruments. In her orchestral piece Miroirs des temps, Chin used ideas from Medieval composers. For example, she used musical palindromes, which are like words or phrases that read the same forwards and backward.

The words in Chin's vocal music often come from experimental poetry. Sometimes, these texts play with words using techniques like acrostics (where the first letter of each line spells a word) or anagrams (rearranging letters to form new words). These word games are also reflected in how she structures her music.

Chin has set poems by writers like Inger Christensen to music. Her piece Cantatrix Sopranica gets its title from a playful, nonsensical writing. However, in Kalá, she also used less experimental texts by writers like Gunnar Ekelöf. Her work Troerinnen is based on an ancient Greek play by Euripides. Le silence des Sirènes combines texts from Homer and James Joyce.

Playfulness and Other Arts

Playful ideas are very important in Chin's opera Alice in Wonderland. This opera is based on Lewis Carroll's famous book. Chin wrote the story for the opera with David Henry Hwang. The Munich performance of the opera was even chosen as 'Premiere of the Year' in 2007 by a German opera magazine.

Some of Chin's works are influenced by other art forms. For example, her orchestral piece Rocaná is inspired by art installations. Her ensemble works Graffiti and cosmigimmicks were influenced by pantomime (acting without words) and the writer Samuel Beckett.

Selected Works

Orchestral Music

Concertos (Music for Solo Instrument and Orchestra)

Other Ensemble Music

Piano Music

Operas

Vocal and Choral Music

Electronic Music

Awards and prizes

Unsuk Chin has received many important awards for her music. Here are some of them:

Recordings

You can listen to Unsuk Chin's music on these CDs and DVDs:

• Unsuk Chin: Akrostichon – Wortspiel and other works. ensemble intercontemporain. CD. Deutsche Grammophon, 2005
• Unsuk Chin: Alice in Wonderland. Bayerische Staatsoper, Kent Nagano. DVD. Unitel, 2008
• Unsuk Chin: Rocaná, Violin Concerto. Viviane Hagner, Kent Nagano, Montreal Symphony Orchestra. CD. Analekta, 2009.
• Unsuk Chin: Xi and other works. (reissue of Akrostichon – Wortspiel CD). ensemble intercontemporain. CD. Kairos, 2011.
• Unsuk Chin: Three Concertos. Myung-whun Chung, Alban Gerhardt, Sunwook Kim, Wu Wei, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. CD. Deutsche Grammophon, 2014
• Spektra for three cellos. In: Ladder of Escape 6. CD. ATTACCA, 1992
• Allegro ma non troppo. In: Fifty Years Studio TU Berlin. 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, New York Philharmonic. 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 [8'] (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

See also

In Spanish: Unsuk Chin para niños