Unsuk Chin ( ; born July 14, 1961) is a South Korean composer of contemporary classical music, who is based in Berlin, Germany. Chin was a self-taught pianist from a young age and studied composition at Seoul National University as well as with György Ligeti at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg.

The recipient of numerous awards, she won the 2004 Grawemeyer Award for her Violin Concerto No. 1, the 2010 Music Composition Prize of the Prince Pierre Foundation for the ensemble piece Gougalōn and the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2024. In 2019, writers of The Guardian ranked her Cello Concerto (2009) the 11th greatest work of art music since 2000, with Andrew Clements describing it as "perhaps the most original and entertainingly disconcerting of all of [her concertos], cast in four brilliant movements that never quite conform to type".

Biography

Unsuk Chin was born in Seoul, South 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 piece Spektra for three celli, which was composed for her graduation project. She also received an academic grant to study in Germany, where she moved that same year. Her first large orchestral piece, Die Troerinnen (1986, rev.1990), for women's voices, was premiered by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990. 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, Chin has been published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes. It 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 and Simon Rattle in 2005.

In 2007, she was awarded the Kyung-Ahm Prize.

Chin's works have been performed by orchestras around the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and many others. Her works have been conducted by Kent Nagano, Simon Rattle, Alan Gilbert, Gustavo Dudamel, Myung-whun Chung, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Neeme Järvi, Péter Eötvös, David Robertson and George Benjamin.

Style

Chin does not regard her music as belonging to any specific culture. Chin names Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Anton Webern, Iannis Xenakis, and György Ligeti, 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.

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 was influenced by the art of pantomime and by Samuel Beckett.

Selected works

{| class="wikitable"

|+Orchestral

!Year

!Title

|-

|1993

|Santica Ekatela for orchestra

|-

|2014

|Mannequin for orchestra

|-

|2017 (rev. 2020)

|Chorós Chordón for orchestra

|-

|2019

|SPIRA – Concerto for Orchestra

|-

|2019

|Frontispiece for orchestra

|-

|2020

|Subito con forza for orchestra

|-

|2022

|Alaraph 'Ritus des Herzschlags' for orchestra

|}

{| class="wikitable"

|+Concertante

!Year

!Title

|-

|1996–97

|Piano Concerto

|-

|2001

|Violin Concerto No. 1

|-

|2009–13

|Cello Concerto

|-

|2009

|Šu for sheng and orchestra

|-

|2013–14

|Clarinet Concerto

|-

|2020–21

|Violin Concerto No. 2

|}

{| class="wikitable"

|+Other 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

|-

|2012

|cosmigimmicks. A musical pantomime for seven instrumentalists

|-

|2012–13

|Graffiti

|}

{| class="wikitable"

|+Piano

!Year

!Title

|-

|1995

|Piano Etude No.2 (Sequenzen)

|-

|1995

|Piano Etude No. 3 (Scherzo ad libitum)

|-

|1995

|Piano Etude No. 4 (Scalen)

|-

|1999

|Piano Etude No.1 (in C)

|-

|2000

|Piano Etude No.6 (Grains)

|-

|2003

|Piano Etude No.5 (Toccata)

|}

{| class="wikitable"

|+Opera

!Year

!Title

|-

|2004–07

|Alice in Wonderland

|-

|2024–25

|Dark Side of the Moon

|}

{| class="wikitable"

|+Vocal and choral

!Year

!Title

|-

|1986–1990

|Troerinnen, for 3 sopranos, women's choir und orchestra, after Euripides' The Trojan Women

|-

|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

|}

{| class="wikitable"

|+Tape/electronics

!Year

!Title

|-

|1989–1990

|Gradus ad Infinitum for 8 pianos for tape

|-

|1998

|Allegro ma non troppo for percussion and electronics

|-

|2018

|Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music

|-

|2019

|Bach Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

|-

|2021

|Léonie Sonning Music Prize

|-

|2024

|Ernst von Siemens Music Prize

|-

|2025

|BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award Music and Opera

|}

Portrait CDs and DVDs

  • Unsuk Chin: Akrostichon – Wortspiel and other works. ensemble intercontemporain. CD. Deutsche Grammophon, 2005
  • Unsuk Chin: Alice in Wonderland. Bayerische Staatsoper, Kent Nagano. DVD. Unitel, 2008
  • Unsuk Chin: Rocaná, Violin Concerto. Viviane Hagner, Kent Nagano, Montreal Symphony Orchestra. CD. Analekta, 2009.
  • Unsuk Chin: Xi and other works. (reissue of Akrostichon – Wortspiel CD). ensemble intercontemporain. CD. Kairos, 2011.
  • Unsuk Chin: Three Concertos. Myung-whun Chung, Alban Gerhardt, Sunwook Kim, Wu Wei, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. CD. Deutsche Grammophon, 2014

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. 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
  • Advice from a Caterpiller, bass clarinet solo 2007 [8'] (from Alice in Wonderland). Fie Schouten, CD Ladder of Escape 11 ATT2014140
  • Six Piano Etudes. Clare Hammond. In: "Etude". CD. BIS, 2014
  • ParaMetaString. Esmé Quartet. In: "To Be Loved". CD. Alpha, 2020

References

Further reading

  • Stefan Drees (ed.): Im Spiegel der Zeit. Die Komponistin Unsuk Chin. Schott (Mainz) 2011.
  • "Unsuk Chin", Boosey & Hawkes
  • , Mei Yi Foo
  • Documentary: Unsuk Chin on Unsuk Chin
  • "Classical music – just give children the chance to love it" by Unsuk Chin, The Guardian, October 22, 2015
  • Hanno Ehrler: Ordnung, Chaos und Computer – Die Komponistin Unsuk Chin