Presented by the Korean Cultural Center New York

Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 7:30 PM
The Times Center (242 W 41st St., New York, NY 10036)

Admission: Free (Pre-registration is required)

The use of a face mask is strongly encouraged but no longer mandatory.
RSVP and seating are on a first-come, first-served basis.

◆ Program

Schubert / Liszt: Serenade
Schubert: Impromptus Op. 142 Nr. 3
Ravel: Une barque sur l'océan
Schumann / Liszt: Widmung
William Youn, piano

A.Dvorak: Piano Quintet No.2 in A Major Op.81
Sunghwan Choi: Arirang Fantasy (arr. Soonmee Kahng)
William Youn, piano with the New York Philharmonic String Quartet

* Programs and artists are subject to change.

In celebration of the 44th anniversary of the opening of the Korean Cultural Center New York, we would like to cordially invite you to a Performance with renowned Pianist William Youn (윤홍천), described by critics as a “genuine poet” for his lyrical touch, and the New York Philharmonic String Quartet, comprised of four Principal musicians from the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a thank you for your incredible support and partnership over the years, we hope you will join us for this festive evening. Hosted at The Times Center in the heart of the city, the evening’s festivities will look back, and look forward, to some of the great moments from this year and the next.

For any inquiries, please contact the Korean Cultural Center New York at performingarts@koreanculture.org.

◆ Pianist William Youn

"I've never heard Schubert like this before."

-Cresendo

Critics have called him “a true poet of the piano” whose “brilliant touch” allows him to explore the “spiritual depths” of the music he plays: William Youn is one of the finest pianists of our day and has established an international reputation, particularly for his Schubert recordings. His playing is characterized by subtlety, emotional insight, and sensitive analysis.

From Berlin to Seoul to New York, Youn has performed throughout the world with renowned orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, the Belgian National Orchestra, the Mariinsky Orchestra, and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in many of the world’s finest concert halls, including Wigmore Hall in London, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Pierre Boulez Saal and the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, deSingel in Antwerp, Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, and the Seoul Arts Center.

William Youn is also a frequent guest at international festivals such as the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, the Schubertiade in Hohenems/Schwarzenberg, the MITO SettembreMusica, the Grafenegg Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Heidelberg Spring Music Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Mozartfest in Würzburg, the SWR Schwetzingen Festival, and the Davos Festival.

In addition to the modern grand piano, William Youn also performs on the fortepiano. In addition to his activities as a soloist, he is an enthusiastic chamber musician and accompanist, working with artists such as the violist Nils Mönkemeyer, the clarinetist Sabine Meyer, the cellist Julian Steckel, the violinists Carolin Widmann and Veronika Eberle, the Aris String Quartet, and the baritone Thomas Hampson.

Numerous award-winning CD recordings document William Youn’s work. Following several recordings with Nils Mönkemeyer, a cycle of five albums for Oehms Classics with the complete Mozart piano sonatas and the solo album “Schumann-Liszt- Schubert”, Sony Classical released the third and final part of Youn’s complete recording of the Schubert piano sonatas in 2022. Critics have praised the first two parts of this trilogy for their “flawless, perfectly realized naturalness” (Fono Forum) and for Youn’s depiction of “Schubert’s sense of existential despair.” (Münchner Merkur)

In the 2022/23 season, Youn premiered a piano concerto by South Korean composer Younghi Pagh-Paan with the Munich Chamber Orchestra and a collaboration with choreographer Heinz Spoerli and the Vienna State Ballet for the production “Goldberg Variations.” Celebrating the completion of his Schubert CD cycle, he gave recitals at the Schubertiade in Hohenems/Schwarzenberg as well as in Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and the Konzerthaus Berlin.

Born in Seoul, William Youn first discovered the piano in a Korean kindergarten. At the age of 13 he moved to the USA to study at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Five years later he moved to Germany, where he studied with the legendary piano pedagogue Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. While a scholarship student at the Piano Academy Lake Como, Youn received further musical inspiration from artists such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Andreas Staier, William Grant Naboré, and Menahem Pressler. William Youn teaches regularly at the Wilhelm Kempff Cultural Foundation in Positano, where he is also a member of the Board of Trustees

◆ New York Philharmonic String Quartet

Frank Huang, Concertmaster
Qianqian Li, Principal Second Violin
Cynthia Phelps, Principal Viola
Carter Brey, Principal Cello

The New York Philharmonic String Quartet comprises four Principal musicians from the Orchestra: Concertmaster Frank Huang (The Charles E. Culpeper Chair); Principal Second Violin Group Qianqian Li; Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps (The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair); and Principal Cello Carter Brey (The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Chair). The group was formed in January 2017, during the Philharmonic’s 175th anniversary season; the New York Philharmonic String Quartet made its debut as the solo ensemble in John Adams’s Absolute Jest in New York in March 2017, and reprised the work on the Orchestra’s EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour. All four members are multiple prize winners, have appeared as concerto soloists with the Philharmonic and orchestras around the world, and have appeared frequently in the Philharmonic’s chamber music series at David Geffen Hall and Merkin Concert Hall.

Frank Huang has performed at the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, and Caramoor. He frequently participates in Musicians from Marlboro’s tours, and was selected by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to be a member of the prestigious Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two). Before joining the Houston Symphony as concertmaster in 2010, Frank Huang held the position of first violinist of the Grammy Award–winning Ying Quartet.

Qianqian Li has performed at major music festivals including Aspen, Tanglewood, Yellow Barn, and Sarasota. As a soloist, she has performed with orchestras in major concert halls in Asia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. Before joining the New York Philharmonic, she served as a member of the first violin section of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for three years, after winning positions with the orchestras of Seattle, Atlanta, and St. Paul in the same period. She has also performed in the Boston, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta symphony orchestras and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Cynthia Phelps performs with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Jupiter Chamber Players, and the Santa Fe, La Jolla, Seattle, Chamber Music Northwest, and Bridgehampton festivals. She has appeared with the Guarneri, Tokyo, Orion, American, Brentano, and Prague Quartets, and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. She is also a founding member of the chamber group Les Amies, a flute-harp-viola group with Philharmonic Principal Harp Nancy Allen and flutist Carol Wincenc.

Carter Brey has made regular appearances with the Tokyo and Emerson string quartets as well as The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at festivals such as Spoleto (both in the United States and Italy), and the Santa Fe and La Jolla Chamber Music festivals. He and pianist Christopher O’Riley recorded Le Grand Tango: Music of Latin America, a disc of compositions from South America and Mexico released on Helicon Records.

THANK YOU NOTES: KCCNY Holiday Concert featuring William Youn & the New York Philharmonic String Quartet