Unsuk Chin

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Unsuk Chin (Korean pronunciation:[nsuk tin];

born July 14, 1961) is a
South Korean composer of classical music, based in Berlin, Germany. She
was awarded the Grawemeyer Award in 2004, the Arnold Schnberg Prize
in 2005 and the Music Composition Prize of the Prince Pierre Foundation in
2010.

Biography[edit]
Unsuk Chin was born in Seoul, Korea. Her father taught her music theory
and piano at an early age. She studied composition with Sukhi Kang at
Seoul National University and won several international prizes in her early
20s. She studied with Gyrgy Ligeti at the Hochschule fr Musik und
Theater Hamburg from 1985 to 1988. In 1988 Unsuk Chin moved to Berlin,
where she worked as a freelance composer at the electronic music studio
of the Technical University of Berlin, realizing seven works. Her first large
orchestral piece, Troerinnen, 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 the latter, started in 1994 with Fantaisie
mecanique. Since 1995, Unsuk Chin is published exclusively by Boosey &
Hawkes. 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,[1] 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.
Unsuk Chin's works have been performed by conductors such as Kent
Nagano, Simon Rattle, Alan Gilbert, Gustavo Dudamel, Myung-Whun
Chung, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Neeme Jrvi, Peter Etvs, David Robertson
and George Benjamin as well as by leading orchestras and ensembles
such as 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. Chin's music has been
highlighted at major music festivals such as at the 2014 Lucerne Festival,
the Festival Musica in Strasbourg, the Suntory Summer Festival, the 2013
Stockholm Concert Hall's Tonstterfestival or Settembre Musica in Italy.
2001/2002 Unsuk Chin was appointed composer-in-residence at
Deutschen Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; since 2006 she holds the position
of Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra's composer-in-residence and artistic
director of its Contemporary Music Series, which she founded herself at the
invitation of the orchestra's chief conductor Myung-Whun Chung and in
which so far ca. 150 Korean premieres of central works of classical
modernism and contemporary music have been presented, including
commissioned works by Peter Etvs, Pascal Dusapin, York Hller and
Tristan Murail. 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.
2007 Chin's first opera Alice in Wonderland was premiered at Bavarian
State Opera. A second opera named Through the Looking Glass will be
premiered in the 2018/19 season at The Royal Opera.