Kun-Woo Paik Kun-Woo Paik

Kun-woo Paik(born March 10, 1946 in Seoul) is a South Korean pianist. He has performed with multiple orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic.

Early life

Kun Woo Paik was born in Seoul. He gave his first concert, aged 10, with the Korean National Orchestra, playing Grieg's Piano Concerto. In the following years he performed many important works in Korea, including several local premieres such as Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Later he studied in New York (Juilliard School), London, and in Italy with Rosina Lhévinne, Ilona Kabos, Guido Agostiand Wilhelm Kempff. Kun Woo Paik is also a laureate of the Naumburgand Busoni International Piano Competitions.

Career

Over the years Kun Woo Paik has performed recitals in major musical centres such as the Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Halland Berlin Philharmonie. He has also performed with such orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra(Last Night of the Proms 1987), Pittsburgh Symphony, Russian National Orchestra, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Rai Torino, Warsaw Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestraand Polish National Radio Orchestra, with such conductors as Mariss Jansons, Sir Neville Marriner, Lawrence Foster, Mikhail Pletnev, Dmitri Kitayenko, James Conlon, John Nelsonand Eliahu Inbal. Kun Woo Paik is also a regular guest artist at major music festivals such as the Berlin Festwochen, Aix-en-Provence, La Roque d'Antheron, Colmar, Spoleto, Aldeburgh, "Mostly Mozart" and Ravinia Festivals, and has toured extensively in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Italy.

His repertoire is very varied and comprises such rare works as Busoni's Piano Concerto, Fauré's Fantasy for piano and orchestraand Liszt's Fantasy on themes from Berlioz's "Lélio". Kun Woo Paik also performs a wide selection of transcriptions by Liszt and Berlioz and is the dedicatee of Suk-Hi Kang's piano concerto.

Paik has recorded the complete Prokofievpiano concertos with Antoni Witand the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra for RCA (Diapason d'or in 1993), the complete Rachmaninoffpiano concertos with Vladimir Fedoseyevand the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra(BMG), as well as several solo CDs of Scriabin, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff and Mendelssohnpiano music. In 2000 he signed an exclusive recording contract with Decca Classics. His first release featured the piano transcriptions of the organ works of J. S. Bachmade by Busoni. Between 2005 and 2007, Decca recorded Paik in the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven.

He was the Artistic Director of the Emerald Coast Music Festival in Dinard(France) for 21 years, from 1993 to 2014. He programmed a large range of music, from baroque, through romantic, and contemporary music; performed by top international artists to a large audience, and notably with free outdoor concerts, concerts for children, and concerts with young virtuosi.In November 2014, he was fired from this position by the Mayor of Dinard, Martine Craveia-Schütz, to be replaced by the Egyptian pianist Ramzi Yassa; Kun Woo Paik expressed in a long letter to the Mayor of Dinard his "stupefaction and deep sorrow".

Kun Woo Paik was made "Chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres" by the French Government in 2000. In September 2000 he was the first Korean artist to be officially invited to perform in China.

Personal life

Paik has resided in Paris with his wife, actress Yoon Jeong-heesince 1974. Yoon is a star of the late 1960s, commonly referred to as one of "The First Troika"by the South Korean news media, along with two other actresses in rivalry, Moon Hee, and Nam Jeong-im.The couple has a daughter who is a violinist.