Cellist to perform at Gobin

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Korean cellist Yeon Ji Yun, winner of numerous competitions and a former member of the Korean Symphony Orchestra, makes her Greencastle Summer Classical Music Festival debut tonight in a program of music from Argentina and Spain.

She will be joined by Japanese pianist Nariaki Sugiura in the 7:30 p.m. program in Greencastle's Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church. Admission is free, with donations accepted.

The program will consist of works by Spanish composers Gaspar Cassad-- ("Suite for Solo Cello") and Issac Albeniz (selections from "Suite Suite Espaņola") and Agentinian composers Alberto Ginastera ("Sonata for Solo Piano") and Astor Piazzolla (arrangements of three tangos).

"Yeon Ji is a fabulous cellist," said the festival's Artistic Director Eric Edberg."Our audiences already know the international caliber of Nariaki's pianistic skills from his wonderful performance a few weeks ago. This program features very accessible, enjoyable works and should be a real treat."

Born in Seoul, Yeon Ji Yun began to study cello at age 9, later entering the Yewon School, a specialty arts middle school in Korea, and the Seoul Arts High School. She played the Boccherini Concerto in B-flat with the Yewon School Orchestra, where only students with the highest practical technique grades could play. She also played the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Korean Symphony Orchestra during 12th grade.

She attended Seoul National University and won first place in various competitions of Korea, including the Music Chunchu Competition, the Seoul National Competition, the Nanpa Competition, and the Korean-American Competition. She also participated in the Asian Youth Orchestra during college, and played in a tour around six European countries and in "the Quartet Program" in the U.S. After a year, Yun passed the Korean Symphony Orchestra audition, and worked in the orchestra while attending graduate school. With working in the orchestra, she frequently toured, giving solo and chamber recitals with famous musicians in Korea. She has a master of music in cello performance from Seoul National University and was a teaching assistant in the same school.

She received a scholarship to study abroad at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington in 2005. Under the tutelage of Helga Winold, she received a performer diploma. Now she is studying with distinguished cello professor Janos Starker at Indiana University, pursuing a doctoral degree.

She won the concerto competition in IU and played Walton Cello Concerto with the Concert Orchestra of Indiana University in 2007. In 2008, she won the first prize of The 11th Annual Competition in the Performance of Music from Spain and Latin America in January and the Travel Grant Competition in April. She had a concert tour with a program of all three Brahms cello sonatas in U.S. with a pianist Nariaki Sugiura and had also a solo recital with a pianist Raquel Gorgojo in the Segovia Music Conservatoire in Segovia, Spain. She won the 'Paganini special mention' in the 2008 IBLA World Competition in Italy. She is now teaching as an instructor in IU String Academy and performs on a 1766 Guersan cello.

International concert pianist Nariaki Sugiura frequently tours as a recitalist and chamber musician, and gives lessons and master classes throughout the U.S. as well as tours in Europe and Asia. He has recently appeared on the concert stages at the Roundtop Music Festival in Texas, the Fox River Chamber Music Festival in Wisconsin, and in South Korea and Japan.

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