Yeol Eum Son

• Name — Yeol Eum Son • Born — 2 May 1986 • Birthplace — Wonju, South Korea • Genre — Classical • Occupation — Musician • Instruments — Piano • Label — * Decca Classics • Harmonia Mundi • Onyx Classics • Naïve Records • Website — yeoleumson.com Yeol Eum Son (born May 2, 1986) is a South Korean classical pianist. She is an interpreter of the classical period of composers, especially Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, as well as such later composers as Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Ravel. Son has attained international recognition for her performances of Mozart's piano concertos and sonatas. Son is an internationally recognized concert pianist with major orchestras, performing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and with such conductors as Lorin Maazel, Sir Neville Marriner, Valery Gergiev, Sir Antonio Pappano, Edward Gardner, and Jaap van Zweden. She performs recitals at Carnegie Hall in New York City, US, at Wigmore Hall in London, UK and at the Edinburgh International Festival in UK.

Son was born in Wonju, South Korea. Son took her first piano lesson at the age of three and a half. She made a recital debut on Kumho Prodigy Concert Series in July 1998. At the age of twelve, she started studying with pianist Kim Dae-jin. At age sixteen, she entered the Korea National University of Arts to continue her piano studies. At the age of 18, she recorded the complete Chopin Etudes (Op. 10 and Op. 25) for a CD on the Universal Music Label. In 2006, she began studying with Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik und Theatre, in Hannover, Germany, where she currently resides.

Son was awarded the Silver Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011. At the Tchaikovsky Competition she also received the prizes for Best Chamber Concerto Performance and the Best Performance of the Commissioned Work. The video of her performance of the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 at the Tchaikovsky Competition has received an estimated 31 million online views, considered a record for a live Mozart performance. She had earlier won the Silver Medal at the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009. In that same competition, she won the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber Music. Son had also won the Bronze Medal at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition (2005).

Son has performed as soloist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Aurora Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Mariinsky Orchestra of St. Petersburg, the Russian State Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Residentie Orchestra of The Hague, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, RTVE Symphony Orchestra (Orquesta Sinfónica de Radio Televisión Española) Madrid, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the KBS Symphony Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa, Canada, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and many others. Son has collaborated with distinguished conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Sir Neville Marriner, Valery Gergiev, Sir Antonio Pappano, Jaap van Zweden, Edward Gardner, Sakari Oramo, Yuri Bashmet, Vasily Petrenko, Omer Meir Wellber, Edo de Waart, Susanna Mälkki, Ivan Fischer, Mikko Franck, Karel Mark Chichon, Myung-whun Chung, Krzysztof Urbański, Alexander Shelley, Andrey Boreyko, James Conlon, Jun Märkl, Lawrence Foster, Dmitri Kitayenko, Ludovic Morlot, Maxim Emelyanychev, Andrew Manze, Pietari Inkinen, Otto Tausk, Ryan Bancroft, Jonathon Heyward, Joana Carneiro, Anja Bihlmaier, Giordano Bellincampi and many others.

• Illustration — Yeol Eum Son at the 19th Music in PyeongChang, Alpensia Concert Hall, on July 6, 2022 Son first drew international attention in October 2004 at age 18 when she appeared as soloist performing Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Lorin Maazel on their Asia tour in Seoul, Daejeon, and Tokyo. Son again performed with Maazel and the New York Philharmonic when they returned to the Seoul Arts Center in February 2008, this time as soloist for Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2. In August 2016, Son performed the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 with the Korean Symphony Orchestra conducted by music director Hun-Joung Lim. Son and violinist Clara Jumi Kang performed the Brahms Violin and Piano Sonata No. 3 in St. Petersburg on October 19, 2016, at the Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall. Son performed the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 in Seoul in 2017 as a one-year memorial to Sir Neville Marriner, with whom she had made his final recording the previous year. Also included in the program was a performance of Mozart Piano Concerto No. 8, which had been planned for recording sessions just two days after Sir Neville unexpectedly died in his sleep. Marriner and Son had planned to record the complete Mozart concertos. In 2017, Son performed the Gershwin Piano Concerto in F major with Mikko Franck conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France at the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique in Paris. On July 20, 2017, Son performed the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra conducted by Darrell Ang at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 2019, Son made her debut at the BBC Proms festival at the Royal Albert Hall performing the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 15 with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Omer Meir Wellber. In November 2020, Son performed the Beethoven Kreutzer Sonata with violinist Svetlin Roussev. In 2021, Son performed the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2 with conductor Jun Märkl and the Philharmonie ZuidNederland at the Concertgebouw, in Amsterdam, Netherlands. In September 2021, Son performed the Beethoven Emperor Concerto with conductor Pietari Inkinen and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern in a broadcast event. In November 2022, Son performed the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 with the NDR Radiophilharmonie conducted by Andrew Manze in a broadcast event. Also in November, she performed the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 with Manze and the NDR Radiophilharmonie. In that same month, she performed the Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand with Pablo Urbina conducting the Orquesta Sinfónica y Coro RTVE in Madrid. Son had performed the Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major with the same orchestra in the previous season with Pablo González as conductor. In the season 2022–2023, she was artist in residence with Residentie Orkest (The Hague Philharmonic), Amare concert hall The Hague and Royal Conservatory of The Hague and recorded the Ravel piano concertos with the orchestra. On July 31, 2022, Son performed the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Going Home Project orchestra led by Svetlin Roussev in Seoul. In December 2022 Son performed the Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jonathon Heyward. Son participated in the 2023 Rosendal Chamber Music Festival in Norway which featured chamber music of Brahms. She collaborated with violinist James Ehnes in the festival's opening performance, Brahms Violin and Piano Sonata No. 1. Later in the festival she performed the Brahms Clarinet and Piano Sonata No. 2 with clarinetist Sharon Kam. Also the Brahms Piano Trio No. 2 Op. 87 with violinist Ehnes and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, of which a reviewer wrote that "on came the dream team of James Ehnes (violin) Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello) and Yoel-Eum Son (piano)...It was the best performance in the festival so far." "Son's ravishing solo piano phrases lit up the second movement. The third movement scherzo was lightening fast and tighter than Count Basie's rhythm section! The three musicians could be seen enjoying and appreciating each other's playing more and more as they progressed. It was a very special performance. Five stars!" Son also performed the Brahms F-A-E Scherzo for violin and piano with the violinist Svetlin Roussev. Son gave a recital at the 2023 Edinburgh International Festival performing the Beethoven Hammerklavier Sonata in an acclaimed BBC broadcast concert. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Rachmaninoff's birth, Son and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern conducted by Pietari Inkinen toured in September 2023 in eight concerts mostly in South Korea featuring the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto. On October 28, 2023, Son performed Liszt's Totentanz with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano. One critic wrote of Son's achievement with Pappano and the LSO that "...we heard Yeol Eum Son in Liszt's Totentanz. "Tour de force" could equally have been its title, for it makes huge demands on the soloist. It seemed, however, that Yeol Eum Son hardly noticed, so complete was her control over Liszt's taxing variations. It was a superb performance." Son's debut with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and music director Otto Tausk in the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in November 2023 elicited a review that "her patrician elegance and clean, sharply-chiseled performance were exemplary...very much in the spirit of Mozart's era." In February 2024, Son performed with violinist Svetlin Roussev in the Richard Strauss Violin Sonata. Son performed the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 with the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa, Canada conducted by Joana Carneiro in Ottawa in June 2024. On September 8, 2024, Son performed the Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue in the Credia Park Concert in Seoul, South Korea, with the Going Home Project Orchestra led by violinist and concertmaster Svetlin Roussev. In December 2024, Son performed the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antonio Méndez. One reviewer stated that Son "had the ideal combination of technical abandon, lyrical control and power, which brought out the best in the music." She performed the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor with the National Concert Orchestra conducted by Jaimé Martin at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland. Son performed the Bartók Piano Concerto No. 3 in March 2025 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Roberto Gonzalez-Monjas. From April 25 to 27, 2025 she performed the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 24 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ryan Bancroft. One critic wrote that Son performed with "immaculate technique and just enough crispness to propel things forward. It was a satisfying performance." In May 2025, she performed the Ravel Piano Concerto in G major in Ottawa with the National Arts Centre Orchestra conducted by Alexander Shelley at the National Arts Centre and the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22 in Toronto with the National Arts Centre Orchestra conducted by Alexander Shelley at Roy Thomson Hall as part of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra regular season series. One reviewer stated that in the Mozart No. 22 "Son's approach to this piano concerto was of joy, but with delicacy, poise, and refinement...She handled the exposed passagework full of scales and arpeggios with clarity and control. Son clearly has an affinity for Mozart. The audience responded enthusiastically with a standing ovation..." Son toured South Korea with the National Arts Centre Orchestra conducted by Alexander Shelley in late May performing the Ravel Piano Concerto in G major, in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the South Korean Embassy in Ottawa and the Korea-Canada Year of Cultural Exchanges (2024–2025). In June 2025, Son performed the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 in Ljubljana, Slovenia with the RTV Slovenija Orchestra conducted by Lio Kuokmam. Son performed the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner in September 2025. She then performed with the London Philharmonic and Edward Gardner on tour in South Korea for four concerts in October. In October and November 2025, Son performed Mozart Piano Concertos No. 21 and No. 24 on the same program with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Andrew Manze in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. One reviewer stated that "Yeol Eum Son’s combination of exactness, energy and emotion rewarded the closest listening and demands the highest praise...the composer’s paragraphs are delineated with passion and decisive precision. Masterly stuff." On March 13, 2026, Son performed the Bartók Piano Concerto No. 3 and the Eclogue for Piano and String Orchestra by Gerald Finzi with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at Barbican Hall conducted by Sakari Oramo, broadcast live on the BBC television network. Of this performance, The Guardian music critic Clive Paget stated that in the Bartók piano concerto Son brought a "crisp clarity and a poetic flourish to the folk song-inflected melodies while mastering the lush romantic passages with an impressive muscularity" and that "her playing was rife with expressive insights", while in the Finzi work "her lightness of touch and graceful counterpoint with the velvety BBCSO strings was truly scrumptious." Son then toured South Korea with Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in six concerts and the Bartók Third Piano Concerto or the Britten Piano Concerto on the program. On June 27, 2026, Son performed the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2 with the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Karen Kamensek. On August 13, 2026, Son returned to the BBC Proms festival, performing the Gershwin Piano Concerto in F with James Gaffigan conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall in London, UK. This performance was in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence. One critic claimed that her "opening theme instantly set an easy, relaxed tone, demonstrating her signature technical perfection throughout...Son brought an infectiously warm, convivial style, fully immersed and involved...in moments enacting a physical vibrato on the keys in a tribute to the luxuriant sound being served up behind her." On October 1, 2026, Son will perform a solo recital at Wigmore Hall in London, UK. On November 25, 2026, Son will perform the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22 with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Manze at the Lighthouse concert hall in Poole, UK. On January 29 and 30, 2027 Son will play the Beethoven Piano Concerto No.1 with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anja Bihlmaier. From February 25 to 28, 2027, Son will perform all five Beethoven piano concertos with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Heyward. On March 11, 2027, Son will perform the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Orchestra of St. Luke's conducted by Andrew Manze in Carnegie Hall in New York City. From April 14 to 18, 2027, Son will tour in South Korea with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alain Altinoglu, performing the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4. On May 7, 2027, Son will perform the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Joshua Weilerstein at the Barbican Centre in London.

Son has achieved global acclaim for her performances of Mozart's piano concertos and piano sonatas. Son's performances of the Classical period works composed by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven require clarity and flawless execution. She states that: "I love Mozart and Beethoven, but I need lots of control for them as I'm extremely exposed. I get much more nervous when I'm playing those composers on stage, too." Many pianists avoid the Mozart and Beethoven concertos due to the clarity required which makes any performance errors obvious. In the piano works of the later Romantic and modern periods, pedaling can create a musical haze which obscures errors in execution. Son's live Mozart performances, such as her appearances in 2025 of the Piano Concerto No. 24 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and No. 22 with the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa, have been acclaimed as free of any flaw or technical errors.

• Illustration — Yeol Eum Son in an interview with Arts Council Korea in 2017 Son held the position of Artistic Director of Music in PyeongChang, one of South Korea's largest classical music festivals, from 2018 to 2022. She was acclaimed for her creative and innovative programming and Son engaged many renowned solo musicians from around the world to participate in the festival. Son had been and continued to be a frequent performer at the festival, including in such works as the Brahms Piano Quartet in C minor, the Rachmaninoff Cello and Piano Sonata in G minor Op. 19, the Ravel Piano Trio, the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22, performing her own cadenzas, and the Bartók Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion.

Beginning May 2010, she wrote a monthly column for JoongAng Sunday, the Sunday edition of JoongAng Ilbo, one of Korea's most widely read newspapers. This was compiled as a book in 2015.

Yeol Eum Son is recorded with the occupation musician. Recorded with the occupation composer. Recorded with the occupation pianist. Classed in the genre classical music. Recorded as musician, composer and pianist.

Son's recording in 2016 of the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields was the final recording of Sir Neville and has been widely praised. The album was selected by Classic FM as their Classic FM Album of the Week. One critic described it as "full of wit and vitality... utterly radiant". Son composed her own cadenzas for this concerto. The recording was released on the Onyx label in 2018. In February 2023 Son's recordings of the complete Mozart Piano Sonatas were released on the Naive label. These met with enthusiastic critical response and the release was named Classic FM Album of the Week. In May 2025, Son's recording of the two Ravel piano concertos was released, the Piano Concerto in G major and the Left Hand Concerto in D major, with the Residentie Orkest conducted by Anja Bihlmaier. They were described by one music reviewer as "fizzingly captured readings", the central Adagio movement of the G major "a perfect vehicle for Son's tonal purity" and the left-hand D major WWI-related work "is compellingly brought out...it feels almost programmatic." On January 8, 2026, Son released recordings of the complete chamber music of Ravel.

• 2004: "Chopin: 24 Etudes" (Universal Music) • 2008: "Chopin: Nocturnes for Piano and Orchestra" (Universal Music) • 2009: "13th Van Cliburn Competition: Yeol Eum Son, Silver Medalist" (Harmonia Mundi) • 2012: "Yeol Eum Son, Piano" (O'new World Music) • 2016: "Schumann & Brahms: Sonatas, Romances" (Decca Classics) • 2016: "Modern Times: Berg, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Ravel" (Decca Classics) • 2018: "Mozart: Piano Concerto No.21 K467 / Sonata No.10 K330" (Onyx Classics) • 2020: "Schumann: Fantasy in C – Kreisleriana – Arabesque" (Onyx Classics) • 2021: "Kapustin" (Onyx Classics) • 2023: "Mozart: Complete Piano Sonatas" (Naïve Records) • 2024: "Love Music" (Naïve Records) • 2025: "Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major and Concerto for the Left Hand" (Naïve Records)

On May 20, 2024, Son was awarded the Grand Prize of the Daewon Music Awards for 2024. The Daewon Awards recognize outstanding levels of achievement in the performing arts for classical music in South Korea.

• 1997: 2nd Prize, International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians • 1999: 1st Prize, Oberlin International Piano Competition • 2001: 1st Prize, The 7th Ettlingen Piano Competition • 2002: 1st Prize, 53rd Viotti International Music Competition • 2005: 3rd Prize, Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition. Finalist, XV International Chopin Piano Competition • 2008: 1st Prize, Piano Competition Kissinger Klavierolymp, related to the festival Kissinger Sommer • 2009: Silver Medal and Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber Music (shared with Evgeni Bozhanov), Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition • 2011: 2nd Prize overall, Silver Medal, also winner Best Chamber Concerto (Mozart Concerto) Performance, winner Best Performance of the Commissioned Work (by Rodion Shchedrin) XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition