William Youn

William Youn, a pianist whose training spanned South Korea, the United States, and Europe, has built a correspondingly global performing life that also encompasses chamber repertoire and historically informed work on the fortepiano. Born in Seoul in 1982, he began piano lessons at six and made his orchestral debut five years later with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. At thirteen he relocated to the United States, enrolling at the New England Conservatory for musical instruction while attending the Walnut Hill School in Boston for his academic studies. Five years in Massachusetts were followed by a move to Germany, where he continued at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover under Bernd Goetzke. A 2006 scholarship took him to the International Piano Academy Lake Como in Dongo, Italy, for a three-year period during which his teachers included Fou Ts'ong, Charles Rosen, and fortepianist Andreas Staier. Establishing his base in Munich, Youn has appeared as soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and the Seoul Philharmonic, while his recital engagements have included the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, and Wigmore Hall in London. An active chamber musician, he has worked with violist Nils Mönkemeyer, clarinetist Sabine Meyer, and the Signum String Quartet, and he performs on both modern piano and fortepiano. His discography began with a 2009 recording of the two Chopin piano concertos, made with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra for the Ars Produktion label and later joined by releases on Oehms and Genuin. In 2018 Sony Classical signed him; that year he issued a recital program of works by Schumann, Schubert, and Liszt, followed in 2020 by the first installment of a projected Schubert sonata series on the same imprint. He was featured on an ECM album of music by Konstantia Gourzi in 2021.