Sunwook Kim came to international recognition when he won the prestigious
Leeds International Piano Competition in 2006, aged just 18, becoming the
competition’s youngest winner for 40 years, as well as its first Asian winner.
Since then, he has established a reputation as one of the finest pianists of his
generation, appearing as a concerto soloist in the subscription series of some
of the world’s leading orchestras including the Berliner Philharmoniker,
London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Staatskapelle
Dresden, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota
Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester,
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Finnish Radio Symphony,
Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National
Orchestra, BBC Orchestra of Wales, Radio-France Philharmonic, NHK
Symphony, Hallé Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony and the
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for his BBC Proms debut in Summer
2014. Conductor collaborations include with Jakub Hrusa, Karina Canellakis,
Nathalie Stutzmann, Thomas Sondergard, Tugan Sokhiev, Daniel Harding,
Paavo Järvi, David Afkham, Edward Gardner, John Eliot Gardiner, Myung-
Whun Chung, Osmo Vänskä, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Kirill Karabits, Marek
Janowski, Sakari Oramo, Andrew Manze, Vassily Sinaisky, Michael
Sanderling and Sir Mark Elder.
In the 2024/25 season, Sunwook continues his term as Music Director of the
Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra conducting works from Mozart and
Beethoven to Strauss, Bartok and Unsuk Chin. Sunwook will also make his
conducting debuts with the Iceland Symphony, Armenian National
Philharmonic and Israel Philharmonic. Recent conducting highlights include
with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, KBS Symphony, Macao Orchestra,
Bournemouth Symphony, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, Georges Enescu
Philharmonic and Filharmonia Śląska (Poland).
Play-directing from the piano, upcoming highlights include an extensive tour
of Europe and Korea with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, including
concerts at Lotte Concert Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Salle Philharmonique de
Liege, Halle Aux Grains (Toulouse) and the Barbican, London. As soloist,
Sunwook will also return to the subscription season of the Los Angeles
Philharmonic (Stutzmann) and as part of the Seoul Festival curated by Unsuk
Chin. Further recent concerto highlights include collaborations with the Los
Angeles Philharmonic (Tianyi Lu), London Symphony Orchestra (Michael
Tilson Thomas), Atlanta Symphony (Stutzmann), Netherlands Radio
Philharmonic (Canellakis).
In recital, Sunwook will collaborate with Janine Jansen in a tour of Italy
including performances in Venice, Milan, Cremona and Torino as well as to
Dusseldorf and Lugano with an all-Brahms and Schumann programme.
Further highlights to date include regular appearances at the Wigmore Hall,
Queen Elizabeth Hall (London International Piano Series), in the ‘Piano 4
Etoiles’ series at the Philharmonie de Paris and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées,
Piano aux Jacobin Festival, AIX Festival, La Roque d’Antheron International
Piano Festival (France) as well as at the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Klavier-
Festival Ruhr, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele, Teatro Colon Buenos
Aires, Kioi Hall in Tokyo, Symphony Hall Osaka and Seoul Arts Centre.
Sunwook Kim’s debut recital disc was released on the Accentus label in
October 2015, featuring Beethoven’s Waldstein and Hammerklavier sonatas,
this was followed by a recording of Franck’s Prelude, choral et fugue paired
with Brahms Sonata No.3. He has released further recordings of Beethoven’s
Piano Sonatas, Sonata No. 8; Pathetique, Sonata No. 14; Moonlight and
Sonata No. 23; Appassionata as well as sonatas No. 30-32 and his most
recent chamber music release features the Violin Sonatas of Beethoven in
collaboration with Clara-Jumi Kang. His discography also includes multiple
concerto recordings; on Accentus Music with the Staatskapelle Dresden
conducted by Myung-Whun Chung featuring Brahms’ Piano Concerto no. 1
(2019) and Six Piano Pieces (2020) in addition to recordings on Deutsche
Grammophon with the Seoul Philharmonic conducted by Myung-Whun
Chung, a CD featuring Unsuk Chin’s Piano Concerto (2014) which attracted
outstanding reviews and awards from BBC Music Magazine and
International Classical Music Awards, and a CD featuring Beethoven
Concerto No.5 (2013). In 2023, the Berliner Philharmoniker released a new
box of recordings of works by Unsuk Chin, highlighting their collaboration
with the over the past 20 years.
