WONNY SONG is “a versatile, intelligent, and deeply musical young pianist,” says The Washington Post.  Mr. Song has already begun an exciting international career.  During the 2008-2009 season, he makes encore appearances in the Young Concert Artists Series in New York at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater.  He also appears as soloist with the Peoria Symphony (IL) and in recital with JCC of Greater Washington.

During the 2007-2008 season, Mr. Song made 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 has also appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, the South Dakota Symphony, Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain, the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra (FL), 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 Montreal Chamber Music Festival, the second Young Concert Artists Festival at CHANEL Nexus Hall in Tokyo, 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.

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 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.

“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

CALENDAR 2009-2010

Upcoming Concerts:

25 October 2009
Colgate University
Hamilton, New York
Recital
Wonny Song, Piano

2 November 2009
Moore County, NC
Recital
Wonny Song, Piano

8 November 2009
Macomb Center for the Performing Arts
Clinton Township, MI
Recital
Wonny Song, Piano

17 November 2009
San Diego, CA
Chamber Music Recital with the members of the San Diego Symphony

24 November 2009
Office National du Film
Montreal
Wonny Song, Piano
Alexandre da Costa, Violin

15 January 2010
Théâtre du Cuivre à Rouyn-Noranda
Recital
Wonny Song, Piano

16 January 2010
Théâtre Télébec à Val d’Or
Recital
Wonny Song, piano

23 January 2010
Sherbrooke, Quebec
Orchestre symphonique de Sherbrooke
Concerto No.2 Rachmaninoff
Wonny Song, Piano
Stéphane Laforest, Conductor

27 January 2010
Okayama Symphony Hall, Main Hall
Okayama, Japan
Rachmaninoff Concerto No.2
Latvian National Symphony Orchestra
Wonny Song, Piano
Tomomi Nishimoto, Conductor

28 January 2010 Himegin Hall, Main Hall
Ehime, Japan
Rachmaninoff Concerto No.2
Latvian National Symphony Orchestra
Wonny Song, Piano
Tomomi Nishimoto, Conductor

29 January 2010 Symphony Hall
Osaka, Japan
Rachmaninoff Concerto No.2
Latvian National Symphony Orchestra
Wonny Song, Piano
Tomomi Nishimoto, Conductor

30 January 2010
Aichi Prefectural Art Theater, Concert Hall
Aichi, Japan
Rachmaninoff Concerto No.2
Latvian National Symphony Orchestra
Wonny Song, Piano
Tomomi Nishimoto, Conductor

31 January 2010
Tokyo Opera City, Concert Hall
Tokyo, Japan
Rachmaninoff Concerto No.2
Latvian National Symphony Orchestra
Wonny Song, Piano
Tomomi Nishimoto, Conductor

5 February 2010
Beloeil, Quebec
Centre Culturel de Beloeil
Recital
Wonny Song, Piano

18 February 2010
I Musici de Montréal Orchestra
Mendelssohn Concerto for Piano and Violin
Wonny Song, Piano
Alexandre da Costa, Violin
Jésus Amigo, Conductor

28 February 2010
St-Jean-sur-Richelieu
Théâtre des Deux-Rives
Recital
Wonny Song, Piano

21 March 2010
Lanaudière, Québec
Sinfonia Lanaudière
Concerto No.2 Chopin
Wonny Song, Piano
Stéphane Laforest, Conductor

13 April 2010
Williamston, MA
Recital
Wonny Song, Piano

30 April 2010
Carnegie Hall
New York, NY
I Musici de Montreal
Mendelssohn Concerto for Piano and Violin
Wonny Song, Piano
Alexandre da Costa, Violin
Yuli Turovsky, Conductor

Past SPRING/SUMMER/FALL Schedule 09:

28 March 2009
Virtuosi Concerts
Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall (Winnipeg, Canada) 
Recital
Wonny Song, Piano
Denise Djokic, Cello
Alexandre da Costa, Violin

4 april 2009
Centre Culturel de Drummondville, Québec
Piano-Violin Recital
Alexandre da Costa, Violin
Wonny Song, Piano

May 20
Montreal Chamber Music Festival
Beethoven 12 & 7 Magic Flute Variations
Wonny Song, Piano
Denis Brott, Cello

May 22
Montreal Chamber Music Festival
Bernstein Selected songs from West Side Story
Wonny Song, Piano
Poulenc Sonata, Opus 184
James Campbell, Clarinet
Wonny Song, Piano

May 29
Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
Wonny Song, Piano

May 30:  Mendelssohn Trio #2 in C Minor, Opus 66
Wonny Song, Piano
Jonathan Crow, Violin
Denis Brott, Cello
Mendelssohn Midsummer Night’s Dream
Wonny Song, Piano
Kyoko Hashimoto, Piano

8 August 2009
Domaine Forget, Québec
Canimex Ensemble
Mendelssohn Concerto for Piano and Violin
Wonny Song, Piano
Alexandre da Costa, Violin
Jean-François Rivest, Conductor

19 September  2009
Vallejo, California
Vallejo Symphony Orchestra
Concerto No.3 Beethoven
Wonny Song, Piano
David Ramadanoff, Conductor

1 October 2009
Chapelle Historique du Bon Pasteur
Recital
Wonny Song, Piano

7 October 2009
Press Conference for “Tout Chopin Festival”
Jeunesses Musicales du Canada
Wonny Song, Piano

*Please visit again soon for following concerts*

	LES GRANDS CLASSIQUES D’EDGAR La musique romantique (boxset 3) Disques Octave Classique Inc. *CHOIX DE SAISON-Le Devoir April 2009*
	CLAIR DE LUNE Les Grands Classiques d’Edgar- La Musique Romantique CD 6* (boxset 3) Disques Octave Classique Inc. *also available separately
	MUSSORGKSY: PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION XXI-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 Tribune

Classique – 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, 2009

Nos 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

Young Concert Artists, Inc.

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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
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michel@octaveclassique.com