Sunwook Kim
Piano

Sunwook Kim came to international recognition when he won the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition in 2006, aged just 18, becoming the competition’s youngest winner for 40 years, as well as its first Asian winner. Other international awards include First Prize at the 2004 Ettlingen International Piano Competition and the 2005 Clara Haskil International Piano Competition. Since then, he has established a reputation as one of the finest pianists of his generation, appearing as a concerto soloist in the subscription series of some of the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, NHK Symphony Orchestra, The Hallé, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for his BBC Proms début in 2014. Conductors he has collaborated with include Jakub Hrůša, Karina Canellakis, Nathalie Stutzmann, Thomas Søndergård, Tugan Sokhiev, Daniel Harding, Paavo Järvi, David Afkham, Edward Gardner, John Eliot Gardiner, Chung Myung-whun, Osmo Vänskä, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Kirill Karabits, Marek Janowski, Sakari Oramo, Andrew Manze, Vassily Sinaisky, Michael Sanderling and Mark Elder.

Recital highlights to date include regular appearances at the Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall for the London International Piano Series, Philharmonie de Paris and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées for the “Piano 4 Étoiles” series, Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, Kioi Hall Tokyo, Osaka Symphony Hall, Seoul Arts Centre, Festival Piano aux Jacobins, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Festival International de Piano de la Roque d’Anthéron, Klavier-Festival Ruhr and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Recent concerto highlights include collaborations with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, Chamber Orchestra of Europe on tour to South Korea, and Seoul Philharmonic on a European tour. In the 2023/2024 season, he made his début with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Gävle Symfoniorkester.

Kim’s début recital album was released on the Accentus label in 2015, featuring Beethoven’s “Waldstein” and “Hammerklavier” sonatas, followed by Franck’s Prélude, Choral et Fugue paired with Brahms’ Piano Sonata No 3. He has released further recordings of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, and his most recent chamber music release features the violin sonatas of Beethoven in collaboration with Clara-Jumi Kang. His discography also includes multiple concerto recordings: on Accentus with the Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Chung Myung-whun featuring Brahms’ Piano Concerto No 1 (2019) and Six Pieces for Piano (2020), and on Deutsche Grammophon with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Chung Myung-whun featuring Unsuk Chin’s Piano Concerto (2014) – attracting outstanding reviews and awards from BBC Music Magazine and International Classical Music Awards – and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5 (2013).

Born in Seoul in 1988, Kim also completed a master’s degree in Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music and was subsequently made a fellow (FRAM) of the Royal Academy of Music in 2019. After making his international conducting début with the KBS Symphony Orchestra in 2021, he conducted the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in their concert marking the 77th anniversary of Korea’s National Liberation Day in 2022, and subsequently returned to conduct three performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No 9. Further conducting débuts included with the Fundación Excelentia Madrid and Macao Orchestra. In 2023, he was announced as the next Music Director of the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra for an initial term until December 2025.