About Wonny
Wonny Song leads an exciting and glowing international career as one of Canada’s most outstanding young concert pianists. He is widely praised through his recitals, concerto appearances and recordings for his wonderfully poetic touch, depth of musical insight and charismatic personality. Winner of the 2010 Canadian Musician Award as well as the 2002 Galaxie Rising Star Award, he has appeared with over 40 different orchestras including the Cincinnati Symphony, Montréal Symphony, Toronto Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Euro Asian Philharmonic Orchestra, l’Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, Orchestra of St-Luke’s, I Musici de Montréal, Latvian National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra.
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.
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 re-engaged 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. Equally at home with chamber music repertoire, he has appeared in festivals such as the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, the Lachine Music Festival, the Young Concert Artists Festival at CHANEL Nexus Hall in Tokyo, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival as well as the National Arts Centre Young Artist Festival.
Mr. Song’s first compact disc recording of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme of Corelli released under the Canadian label XXI-21, was one of the bestsellers in Canada and reached the Gazette’s 2006 Top 20 Albums of the Year. His subsequent CD, ‘Clair de Lune’ from the ‘Les Grands Classiques d’Edgar’ box set was also a major success, with over 20 000 copies sold throughout North America. Mr. Song’s other CD releases include Beethoven’s Early Piano Sonatas, and Poulenc’s L’histoire De Babar & Debussy’s La Boite à Joujoux in collaboration with renowned narrator Mr. Edgar Fruitier.
Teaching is a significant facet of Mr. Song’s career as he dedicates himself in mentoring the next generation of young pianists. His students have won numerous scholarships and prizes in major competitions throughout North America. As associate director and director of artists-in-residence of Lambda School of Music and Fine Arts, Mr. Song frequently gives masterclasses and workshops with the hope of inspiring young artists through innovative pedagogical approaches. On an academic level, Mr. Song is also co-authoring a unique piano methodology series with Angela Chan.
Reviews
“If Wonny Song’s piano recital at Zankel Hall on Monday evening left one thing certain, it was that Mr. Song has a big, solid technique – going for sparks and adrenaline rush. But his recital yielded a second certainty: that Mr. Song was at his most communicative when he kept some power in reserve. He opened his program with an appealingly transparent, crisply articulated account of Bach’s Keyboard Partita No. 1. Chopin’s “Barcarolle” began with a large, lush timbre and a very musical rubato: a sense of give and take that kept the performance organic. He gave Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso a forceful performance that nevertheless preserved the work’s youthful sprightliness. In “Lost Time,” a new work by Andrew Norman, composer in residence with Young Concert Artists, Mr. Norman requires a good deal of speedy swirling, which Mr. Song reveled in.”
- The New York Times
“A revelation – Wonny Song. He possesses not only the calm, the technique, and the musicality of a concert musician – in the spirit of the great pianists – but especially, and most importantly, the spiritual dimension of a true artist.”
- La Presse (Claude Gingras)
“Song has a wonderfully poetic touch and a rich, warm sound. Clearly, this is a career on the move.”
- The Star Tribune
“Wonny Song est un des plus grands talents de la musique classique et futur maître canadien de renommée mondiale.”
- Monique Deschaussees
“Mr. Song delivered a large-scaled and impressive performance that made it quite reasonable to feel that the best performance ever was the performance we were hearing right then.”
- The Classical Music Guide (at Carnegie Hall Debut)
“Wonny Song is a versatile, intelligent and deeply musical young pianist, and his recital at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater was one of the best programs of the season.”
- The Washington Post
Discography
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LES GRANDS CLASSIQUES D’EDGAR
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CLAIR DE LUNE
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MUSSORGKSY: PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITIONXXI-21 Records |
CD Reviews:
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
Former child prodigy Wonny Song is now in his 20s and fully armed. The Montreal-raised pianist brings a tonal palette to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Treble chirping in the Ballets des Poussins has rarely been so realistic and the Catacombs are very dark. His bright, punchy touch has a bit of Ivo Pogorelich about it, but soft playing, as at the start of Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme of Corelli, is seductive. The same composer’s Vocalise is openly romantic. Super Steinway sonics from the Domaine Forget.
Arthur Kaptainis -The Gazette, May 4th 2006
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
While performing his Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Rachmaninoff used to drop a variation if he heard anyone in the audience cough, which he took as a sign of boredom. Wonny Song, the gifted Montreal pianist who is a prot/e/g/e of Lydia Artymiw at the University of Minnesota, generates no coughing in this debut CD, giving a grandly inflected yet thoughtful account of this thorny but gracious work. He takes the opening theme at a stately pace, brings out the left-hand detail in the first variation, evokes glinting rays of colored light in the sixth, displays a direct, fresh lyricism in the 15th and builds the 20th to a torrent of energy.
His orchestral sound and boundless dexterity also serve Mussorgsky’s familiar “Pictures at an Exhibition”- an interpretation full of vital contrasts and sharp accents- while the encore is a delicate but warm-blooded reading of Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalise,” which builds to an impressive cry of anguish.
Michael Anthony -Star TribuneClassique – FRUITIER, Les Grands classiques d’Edgar, volume 3.: La musique romantique. Octave 6 CD OCR 26956.
Phénomènes éditoriaux et commerciaux, les coffrets I et II des Classiques d’Edgar se nourrissaient d’enregistrements libres de droits (50 ans et plus). Le Devoir avait déploré que Fruitier semblait accréditer l’idée que le génie était forcément affaire d’artistes défunts. La critique fit grincer quelques dents mais a porté, car le Fruitier nouveau a changé! Le coffret cartonné est bien plus élégant et aux côtés de l’acteur s’affichent le violoniste Alexandre da Costa et le pianiste Wonny Song. L’aura médiatique d’Edgar au service de deux excellents jeunes artistes québécois, voilà ce que nous appelions de nos voeux. Ce coffret de 6 CD comprend 4 CD d’extraits très majoritairement anciens et, surtout, 2 CD nouveaux: un récital Kreisler d’Alexandre da Costa et un disque Debussy, Beethoven, Schumann de Wonny Song. Tous deux, aussi disponibles isolément, sont recommandés… avec une priorité au piano, car, dans Kreisler, da Costa fait face au divin récital de James Ehnes chez Analekta.
Christophe Huss – Le Devoir, February 13th, 2009Nos choix de saison
- Duparc: Mélodies. Michèle Losier. Fuga Libera
- Vivaldi: La Fida ninfa, avec Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Naïve
- Alain et David Lefèvre jouent Franck, Lekeu et Mathieu. Analekta
- Clair de lune. Wonny Song. Octave
- Devienne: Sonates pour basson. Mathieu Lussier. Atma
- Humori. Musiques pour le carnaval. Les Voix humaines et Les Voix baroques. Atma
- Tango nuevo. Trio Gryphon. Analekta
Christophe Huss -Le Devoir weekend edition, April 4-5, 2009
Contact
Young Concert Artists, Inc.
250 West 57 Street, Suite 1222
New York, New York 10107
Phone: (212) 307-6655
Fax: (212) 581-8894
Email: yca@yca.org
Please send all technical questions or comments to info@yca.org
Monica J. Felkel
Director of Artist Management
(212) 307-6668
Midwest and Western States, Canada, Europe, Australia & New Zealand, Middle East, Africa
Vicki Margulies
Artist Manager
(212) 307-6670
Northeastern and Southern States, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean
Rong-Hong (Ron) Ma
Far East Representative
Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand
Les Disques Octave Classique Inc.
Michel Laverdière
2065, rue, Parthenais – bureau 282A
Montréal (Québec) H2K 3T1
T 514 259-1928
F 514 259-9697
michel@octaveclassique.com
