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About
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 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.