LA FOLLE JOURNEE DE VARSOVIE

A true, authentic virtuoso, an animal at the keyboard and an excellent musician: this is the Korean pianist Kun Woo Paik”. (Le Figaro)

Born in Seoul, South Korea, Kun Woo Paik studied with Rosina Lhévinne at the Juilliard School of Music in New York and then in London with Ilona Kabos. He currently lives in Paris. Laureate of the First Prize at the Naumburg competition and a finalist in the Leventritt competition, Paik has also won the Joseph Lhevine award. Afterwards, the “Financial Times” wrote: “Kun Woo Paik is considered to be a pianist of phenomenal virtuosity; his poetic deliberations move to the fore”.

Thanks to a recital at Alice Tully Hall, at which he played Ravel’s complete works for the piano, he became known as an extraordinary performer of French music. A cycle of six recitals devoted to works by Liszt given in Paris and London have convinced Brigitte Massin to state in Le Matin: “... for Kun Woo Paik, playing Liszt is a mystic journey, a method to lead listeners into the heart of the work, to experience and discover its reach...”

Invited to play at major concert stages and Europoean festivals, including the Berlin Festwochen, Zurich Tonhalle, Festival Busoni, Aix-en-Provence, La Roque d’Anthéron in 1984, Aldeburgh, Bath, Spoleto, the Chopin Festival in Duszniki Zdrój (Poland), Caramoor (in the United States) and Ravinia, Kun Woo Paik has performed with many renowned orchestras including the St. Petersburg, London, Munich and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestras, the London, BBC and Goteborg symphony orchestras, Orchestre National de France, the Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh Orchestras, the English Chamber Orchestra and the Berlin Radio Orchestra. He performed five concerts together with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Antoni Wit for Polish Television and executed a triumphant tour of South Korea with Brahms’ two piano concertos.

Kun Woo Paik recorded many albums, including one with the Hungarian Rhapsody and the Moonlight Sonata for Virgin, Scriabin’s complete works for piano for the Dante label (Diapason d’Or in January 1992), Ravel’s complete works for piano, Prokofiev’s War Sonatas (no. 6, 7 and 8), Mendelssohn’sSongs without Words for Dante and the complete set of Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos for Naxos (Diapason d’Or in 1992 and the New Academy Award in 1992).