Pianist Lim Yunchan Shines at Gramophone

Pianist Lim Yunchan, who studied in the Department of Instrumental Music, School of Music, was crowned both a special award in the piano category and Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year.

At the Gramophone award ceremony in London on 2 October 2024, Lim Yunchan’s album, “Chopin: Études,” which was released in April after Lim had signed an exclusive contract with Decca Records won the piano category. Lim is the first Korean winner in the category.

Gramophone Classical Music Awards is referred to as the Oscars for classical music. Gramophone, the British classical music magazine initiated in 1923, made awards in 1977. It honors achievements in 11 classical music categories, including piano, orchestra, ensemble, voice, and others.

About Lim’s Chopin Études, the jury mentioned, “[It] proves […] interventionist and capricious … [with] altered dynamics and sudden shifts of balance between the hands.” They summed up his playing as a “scintillating and impetuous synthesis of the ‘old school’-minded cycles from Shura Cherkassky and Abbey Simon.”

Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year also went to Lim Yunchan.

Besides, Lim plans on returning to Korea in December to co-perform with the Bremen German Chamber Philharmonic led by conductor Paavo Järvi. Lim Yunchan will present Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.2 in a concert at the Seoul Arts Center on 18 December.