Korean-Canadian pianist WONNY SONG is “a versatile, intelligent, and deeply musical young pianist,” says The Washington Post.  Still only in his mid-20’s, Mr. Song has already begun an exciting international career.   

In May 2007, Mr. Song appeared in the annual United States Supreme Court musicale, presented by the Friends of Music of the Supreme Court, and hosted by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  He also appeared extensively at the Montreal Chamber Music Festival in May and in June returned to the second Young Concert Artists Festival at CHANEL Nexus Hall in Tokyo.  During the 2007-2008 season, Mr. Song makes his New York concerto debut with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, as part of YCA’s gala Irene Diamond Concert.  He also makes orchestral appearances with Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain, the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra (FL) and the Signature Symphony at Tulsa Community College, and recitals at Colgate University (NY), Iowa State University, Clemson University (SC), and the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts (MI).

As winner of the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York, Mr. Song made his recital debuts at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in New York, sponsored by the Claire Tow Prize, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., presented by the Washington Performing Arts Society.  He was also awarded the Fergus Orchestra Soloist Prize, the Saint Vincent College Concert Series Prize, and the Miriam Brody Aronson Prize. 

Performances as soloist with orchestra include the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, the South Dakota Symphony, the Fort Smith (AR) Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Kenosha (WI) Symphony Orchestra, the Waterbury (CT) Symphony Orchestra, the Florida West Coast Symphony, the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, the National Arts Center Orchestra of Ottawa, and the EuroAsian Philharmonic Orchestra in Korea and Thailand.   Mr. Song has appeared at festivals including the Seattle Chamber Music Festival and the National Arts Center Young Artists Festival in Ottawa, Canada at the invitation of Pinchas Zukerman where he was awarded the 2002 “Galaxy Rising Stars Award” and the Holland Music Sessions.

Mr. Song was awarded the 2003 Prix d’Europe in Canada, which presented him in recital throughout Canada, France, Italy, and Sweden.  As the 2001 First and Grand Prize winner of the Minnesota Orchestra’s WAMSO Competition, he appeared in three subscription concerts with Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra in 2002, and was reengaged for three more subscription concerts with Osmo Vänskä in 2006.  He won the 1997 Ludmila Knezkova Piano Competition in Nova Scotia, as well as First Prize and Best Artistic Interpretation Prize at the 1995 Montreal Symphony Piano Competition and a Gold Medal at the 1994 World Piano Competition in Cincinnati.   

Other highlights of Mr. Song’s career include a solo recital as Canada’s musical ambassador to the 1993 World Expo in Korea and a 1998 performance in Bangkok at the closing ceremony of the Asian Olympic games, an event attended by Thailand’s Royal Family.  Mr. Song returned to Korea in 2005 to perform in the opening concert of Seoul’s new Chungmu Art Hall with the EuroAsian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gum Nan-se. 

Mr. Song’s first CD, a recording of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme of Corelli, was released on the Canadian label XXI-21 Records and was a bestseller in Canada.  In 2003, Mr. Song was featured in a special volume profiling “100 Korean-Canadians of Note,” which was published by Canada’s Korean newspaper, the Korea Times.

Mr. Song was born in South Korea and grew up in Montreal.  He began piano studies at the age of eight and received a full scholarship to Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music in 1994.  He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Montreal University in 1998 and continued his studies with Anton Kuerti at the University of Toronto and at the Glenn Gould Professional School with Marc Durand.  Awarded the first Elinor Bell Fellowship at the University of Minnesota in 2000, he completed his Doctoral studies there with Lydia Artymiw in 2004. 

YCA Artists are continually adding to their repertoire.  Please contact the artist management staff at Young Concert Artists if you are interested in a work which does not appear on this list.

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