Unsuk Chin

Unsuk Chin (진은숙 Korean pronunciation: [tɕin ɯn.suk]; born July 14, 1961) is a South Korean composer of classical music, who is based in Berlin, Germany. Chin began her journey with music at a fairly young age, as she taught herself how to play the piano and music theory.[1] She was awarded the Grawemeyer Award in 2004 (for her Violin Concerto), the Arnold Schönberg Prize in 2005, the Music Composition Prize of the Prince Pierre Foundation in 2010 (for Gougalōn), the Ho-Am Prize in the Arts in 2012, the Wihuri Sibelius Prize in 2017, the Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music of the New York Philharmonic in 2018, the Bach Prize in 2019,[1] as well as the Léonie Sonning Music Prize in 2021.

Unsuk Chin
Born (1961-07-14) July 14, 1961
Seoul, South Korea.
Genrescontemporary classical
Occupation(s)Composer
Unsuk Chin
Hangul
Hanja
Revised RomanizationJin Eunsuk
McCune–ReischauerChin Ŭnsuk

Biography

Unsuk Chin was born in Seoul, Korea. She studied composition with Sukhi Kang at Seoul National University and won several international prizes in her early 20s. In 1985, Chin won the Gaudeamus Foundation located in Amsterdam, with her musical piece called "Spektra for three celli", which was created for her graduation project. She also received an academic grant to study in Germany, and moved to Germany that same year.[1] She studied with György Ligeti at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg from 1985 to 1988.[1]

In 1988, Unsuk Chin worked as a freelance composer at the electronic music studio of the Technical University of Berlin, realizing seven works: her first electronic piece was called "Gradus ad Infinitum" which was composed in 1989.[2] Her first large orchestral piece, Troerinnen (1986) for women's voices, was premiered by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990.[3] In 1991, her breakthrough work Acrostic Wordplay was premiered by the Nieuw Ensemble. Since then it has been performed in more than 20 countries in Europe, Asia and North America. Chin's collaboration with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, which has led to several commissions from them, started in 1994 with Fantaisie mecanique. Since 1995, Unsuk Chin has been published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes.[1] In 1999, Chin began an artistic collaboration with Kent Nagano, who has since premiered six of her works.

Chin's Violin Concerto, for which she was awarded the 2004 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition,[4] was premiered in 2002 by Viviane Hagner. Since then it has been programmed in 14 countries in Europe, Asia and North America, and performed, among others, by Christian Tetzlaff, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Simon Rattle in 2005. In 2007, she was awarded the Kyung-Ahm Prize.

Unsuk Chin's works have been performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Philharmonia Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, NDR Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Ensemble intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, Kronos Quartet, Hilliard Ensemble, Klangforum Wien, Arditti Quartet, London Sinfonietta and Ensemble musikFabrik, and conducted by Kent Nagano, Simon Rattle, Alan Gilbert, Gustavo Dudamel, Myung-Whun Chung, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Neeme Järvi, Peter Eötvös, David Robertson and George Benjamin.[1]

Chin's music has been highlighted at the 2014 Lucerne Festival, the Festival Musica in Strasbourg, the Suntory Summer Festival, the 2013 Stockholm Concert Hall's Tonsätterfestival and at Settembre Musica in Italy. In 2001/2002, Unsuk Chin was appointed composer-in-residence at Deutschen Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. She was closely associated with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra from 2006 to 2017, at invitation from Myung-Whun Chung, as their composer-in-residence and director of their Ars Nova Series for contemporary music, which she founded herself and in which more than 200 Korean premieres of central works of classical modernism and contemporary music were being presented, as well as, later on, as the orchestra's Artistic Adviser. Since 2011, she has overseen the London-based Philharmonia Orchestra's Music of Today series at the invitation of its chief conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen.[1]

Awards and recognition
YEAR NAME OF AWARD
1984 International Rostrum of Composers for the chamber music work Gestalten
1985 First Prize of Gaudeamus Foundation for Spektra[1]
1993 First Prize at the Contest for Orchestra Works to Commemorate the Semicentennial for the Tokyo Government
1997 First Prize for Contemporary Piano Music at the Concours International de Piano d'Orléans for the Piano Studies Nos. 2–4
1999 First Prize at Concours Internationaux de Musique et d’Art Sonore Electroacoustiques de Bourges for Xi
2004 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Violin Concerto[2]
2005 Arnold Schönberg Prize[2]
2007 Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis
2010 Music Composition Prize of the Prince Pierre Foundation for Gougalōn[2]
2012 Ho-Am Prize in the Arts
2017 Wihuri Sibelius Prize[5]
2018 Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music[6]
2019 Bach Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg[7]
2021 Léonie Sonning Music Prize[8]

Style

Unsuk Chin does not regard her music as belonging to any specific culture.[9] Chin names Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Anton Webern, Iannis Xenakis, and György Ligeti,[10] among others, as 20th-century composers of special importance for her. Chin regards her working experience with electronic music and her preoccupation with Balinese Gamelan as influential for her work. In her orchestral work Miroirs des temps, Chin has also used compositional concepts of Medieval composers, such as Machaut and Ciconia, by employing and evolving techniques such as musical palindromes and crab canons.

The texts of Chin's vocal music are often based on experimental poetry, and occasionally they are self-referential, employing techniques such as acrostics, anagrams and palindromes, all of which are also reflected in the compositional structure.[2]

Consequently, Chin has set music to poems by writers such as Inger Christensen, Harry Mathews, Gerhard Rühm or Unica Zürn into music, and the title of Cantatrix Sopranica is derived from a nonsense treatise by Georges Perec. However, in Kalá, Chin has also composed works with less experimental texts by writers such as Gunnar Ekelöf, Paavo Haavikko, and Arthur Rimbaud, Troerinnen is based on a play by Euripides, and Le silence des Sirènes juxtaposes texts by Homer and James Joyce.

Playful aspects are dominant also in Chin's opera Alice in Wonderland, which is based on Lewis Carroll's classic. The opera's libretto was written by David Henry Hwang and the composer. The Munich production, which has been released on DVD by Unitel, was directed by Achim Freyer, and it was selected 'Premiere of the Year' by an international critics' poll, which was conducted in 2007 by the German opera magazine Opernwelt.[11]

Some of Chin's works are influenced by extramusical associations and other art genres, such as her orchestral work Rocaná which alludes to Olafur Elíasson's installations, or her ensemble works Graffiti and cosmigimmicks, the latter of which is being influenced by the art of pantomime and by Samuel Beckett.

Selected works
ORCHESTRAL
YEAR TITLE
1993 Santica Ekatela for orchestra[3]
2008 Rocaná for orchestra[12]
2014 Mannequin for orchestra
2017 Chorós Chordón for orchestra
2019 SPIRA – Concerto for orchestra[13]
2019 Frontispiece for orchestra[14]
CONCERTANTE
YEAR TITLE
1996–97 Piano Concerto
2001 Violin Concerto[2]
2002 Double Concerto for piano, percussion and ensemble[15]
2009–13 Cello Concerto[16]
2009 Šu for sheng and orchestra[17]
2013–14 Clarinet Concerto
ENSEMBLE
YEAR TITLE
1984 Gestalten for ensemble
1985 Spektra for three cellos
1994–97 Fantaisie mécanique for trumpet, trombone, two percussions and piano
2009–11 Gougalōn. Scenes from a Street Theater for Ensemble[18]
2012 cosmigimmicks. A musical pantomime for seven instrumentalists
2012–13 Graffiti[19]
PIANO
YEAR TITLE
1995 Piano Etude No.2 (Sequenzen)[20]
1995 Piano Etude No. 3 (Scherzo ad libitum)[21]
1995 Piano Etude No. 4 (Scalen)[22]
1999 Piano Etude No.1 (in C)[23]
2000 Piano Etude No.6 (Grains)[24]
2003 Piano Etude No.5 (Toccata)[25]
OPERA
YEAR TITLE
2004–07 Alice in Wonderland[26]
VOCAL
YEAR TITLE
1986–1990 Troerinnen, for 3 sopranos, women's choir und orchestra, after Euripides[3]
1991–93 Akrostichon-Wortspiel, for soprano and ensemble[3]
1999–2000 Miroirs des temps, for 4 singers and orchestra[3]
2000–01 Kalá, for soprano, bass, mixed choir and orchestra[3]
2004 snagS&Snarls for soprano and orchestra
2004–2011 Scenes from Alice in Wonderland for soprano, mezzo-soprano and orchestra
2005 Cantatrix Sopranica for two sopranos, countertenor and ensemble[27]
2014 Le silence des Sirènes for soprano and orchestra
2016 Le Chant des Enfants des Étoiles for mixed choir, children's choir, organ and orchestra
TAPE/ELECTRONICS
YEAR TITLE
1989–1990 Gradus ad Infinitum for 8 pianos for tape[3]
1992 El aliento de la sombra[3]
1995 ParaMetaString for string quartet and electronics
1998 Xi for ensemble and electronics[28]
1998 Allegro ma non troppo for percussion and electronics[3]
2000 Spectres-spéculaires for violin and electronics
2006–07 Double Bind? for violin and live electronics
2010–11 Fanfare chimérique for two spatially distributed wind ensembles and live electronics

Portrait CDs and DVDs

Other selected recordings
  • Spektra für drei Celli. In: Ladder of Escape 6. Taco Kooistra, Viola de Hoog, Eduard van Regteren Altena. CD. ATTACCA, 1992
  • Allegro ma non troppo. In: Fifty Years Studio TU Berlin. EMF Media, 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 Orchestra. 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
  • Six Piano Etudes. Clare Hammond. In: "Etude". CD. BIS, 2014
  • ParaMetaString. Esmé Quartet. In: "TO BE LOVED". CD. Alpha, 2020

Bibliography
  • Stefan Drees (ed): Im Spiegel der Zeit. Die Komponistin Unsuk Chin. Schott (Mainz) 2011.

Sources
  1. "Unsuk Chin: Biography". www.boosey.com. Retrieved January 20, 2019.
  2. Seo, Youngsin (December 2016). "A STUDY OF UNSUK CHIN'S VIOLIN CONCERTO". Doctor of Music.
  3. Whittall, Arnold (2001). "Chin, Unsuk". Grove Music Online. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.53607.
  4. "2004– Unsuk Chin". Archived from the original on February 21, 2014.
  5. "Unsuk Chin, Sibelius Prize Winner 2017". Helsinki. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
  6. "Unsuk Chin Wins $200,000 and New York Philharmonic Commission". New York. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
  7. Isermann, Enno (February 20, 2019). "Komponistin Unsuk Chin wird mit dem Hamburger Bach-Preis 2019 ausgezeichnet" (Press release) (in German). Hamburg – Behörde für Kultur und Medien. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  8. Seung-hyun, Song (January 30, 2020). "Chin Un-suk wins Leonie Sonning Music Prize 2021". The Korea Herald. Seoul. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  9. Ordnung, Chaos and Computer: Die Komponistin Unsuk Chin
  10. Unsuk Chin Archived 2011-05-20 at the Wayback Machine
  11. Oper 2007, Opernwelt: Jahrbuch 2007.
  12. "Unsuk Chin – Rocaná". www.boosey.com. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  13. "Unsuk Chin – SPIRA". www.boosey.com. Retrieved September 4, 2019.
  14. "Unsuk Chin – Frontispiece". www.boosey.com. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
  15. "Unsuk Chin – Double Concerto". www.boosey.com. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  16. "Unsuk Chin – Cello Concerto". www.boosey.com. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  17. "Unsuk Chin – Šu". www.boosey.com. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  18. "Unsuk Chin – Gougalon". www.boosey.com. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  19. "Unsuk Chin – Graffiti". www.boosey.com. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  20. "Unsuk Chin – Piano Etude No.2 (Sequenzen)". www.boosey.com. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  21. "Unsuk Chin – Piano Etude No. 3 (Scherzo ad libitum)". www.boosey.com. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  22. "Unsuk Chin – Piano Etude No.4 (Scalen)". www.boosey.com. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  23. "Unsuk Chin – Piano Etude No.1 (in C)". www.boosey.com. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  24. "Unsuk Chin – Piano Etude No.6 (Grains)". www.boosey.com. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  25. "Unsuk Chin – Piano Etude No.5 (Toccata)". www.boosey.com. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  26. "Unsuk Chin – Alice in Wonderland". www.boosey.com. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  27. "Unsuk Chin – Cantatrix Sopranica". www.boosey.com. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  28. "Unsuk Chin – Xi". www.boosey.com. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
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