Vita

A musician’s life!

Yejin Gil began her pro­fes­sional musi­cal career at the age of five. After attend­ing pres­ti­gious Seoul National Uni­ver­sity (bach­e­lor exam­i­na­tion) she fol­lowed her fas­ci­na­tion with Euro­pean music and cul­ture and moved to Ger­many. Here Yejin received a schol­ar­ship of Lions Club and stud­ied under the skilled con­nois­seur and rec­og­nized inter­preter of clas­si­cal and con­tem­po­rary mod­ern music Bern­hard Wambach at Folk­wang Hochschule (Essen). After suc­cess­fully pass­ing her diploma (with dis­tinc­tion), she absolved a post­grad­u­ate pro­gram for con­cert pianists under Michael Roll, which she com­pleted with the high­est Ger­man degree ‘Konz­er­tex­a­men’. Dur­ing her edu­ca­tion Yejin also par­tic­i­pated sev­eral mas­ter classes e.g. with Håkon Austbø and Ueli Wiget.

Dur­ing and after her stud­ies Yejin suc­cess­fully attended selected com­pe­ti­tions. Among oth­ers she achieved first prize in Korea National Com­pe­ti­tion, Köh­ler Osbahr Com­pe­ti­tion (Ger­many) and recently was a win­ner of famous Orléans Com­pe­ti­tion Inter­na­tional (OCI). At OCI she was the only final­ist receiv­ing four main prizes (Prix SACEM, Prix Nadia Boulanger, Prix Albert Rous­sel, Prix HITACHI). Yejin was also awarded the best inter­preter of Philippe Hurel’s piece ‘Inter­stices’ (for Piano and Per­cus­sion Trio), which has been pre­miered at OCI.

Yejin’s fas­ci­na­tion with 20^th cen­tury music began early on and is now –beside clas­si­cal and roman­tic lit­er­a­ture– an inte­gral part of her reper­toire. After her inten­sive stud­ies of mod­ern pieces dur­ing her time at uni­ver­sity, she con­tin­ued to extend her reper­toire and to inten­sively work with com­posers like Pierre Boulez, Unsuk Chin, Mar­tin Mat­alon, Heiner Gob­bels or Philippe Hurel and other inter­preters of mod­ern and con­tem­po­rary music.

Since she has fin­ished her edu­ca­tion, Yejin inten­si­fied her con­cert activ­i­ties. Doing so she appeared at IFCP-Festival (New York), Thueringer Bach­wochen (Thuringia), Klavier Fes­ti­val Ruhr, Traumzeit­fes­ti­val (Duis­burg) or Fes­ti­val de Jeunes Tal­ents (Metz). Fur­ther­more Yejin has recently played recitals at Grand Théa­tre de Genève, Essen Phil­har­monie, Duis­burger Phil­har­monie, Salle Cor­tot (Paris), Théa­tre de Orléans,  The­atre de Bouffes de Nord (Paris) and played together with artists like Dora Schwarzberg, Per­cus­sions de Stras­bourg, Timetable Per­cus­sion Trio, Ber­gis­che Sym­phoniker or Varna Phil­har­monic Orchestra.

After hav­ing been invited to fes­ti­vals and con­certs in Nor­way, Switzer­land, Bul­garia, France, Ger­many and USA in 2010, this year Yejin will appear at Acan­thes Fes­ti­val (Metz, France), Tongyeong Inter­na­tional Music Fes­ti­val (Tongyeong, Korea), Inter­na­tional Pianofes­ti­val La Roque d’Anthéron (Provence, France), Com­poser in Res­i­dence Fes­ti­val Sta­vanger (Nor­way) and Encuen­tros Fes­ti­val in Buenos Aires (Argentina) includ­ing a tour in other cities. Other fes­ti­val appear­ances are under preparation.

Yejin Gil lives in Berlin (Ger­many) and works as con­cert pianist.