Seung-Yeun Huh (Switzerland • Chairperson)
Born in Seoul, Korea, Seung-Yeun Huh is one of her country's leading pianists. From the age of sixteen, she has lived in Europe where she first studied with Günter Ludwig and Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, and later with Maria Curcio and Pavel Gililov.
Seung-Yeun Huh has won numerous first prizes in national and international piano competitions. After winning the Artists International Competition in New York, her debut in the Carnegie-Weill Recital Hall was received enthusiastically and led to prompt invitations for return visits in the following years.
Since then she has collaborated with conductors like David Zinman, Adam Fischer, John Curro, Peter Kuhn, Johannes Wildner, Heribert Beissel, Marcus Bosch, Pietari Inkinen and Wolfram Christ, and has performed with orchestras such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic Orchetra, the Bielefeld Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic State Orchestra of Halle, the New Philharmonic Orchestra Westfalia, the Kurpfälzische Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Zurich and the Sejong Soloists.
Her recitals have taken her to the United States, Asia and several European countries. Seung-Yeun Huh performs regularly at festivals, such as the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, the Bonn Piano Sommer and the Hohenloher Kultursommer, and in Davos, Murten, Prague and Budapest. Many of her concerts have been broadcast by radio and television stations. In addition to her activities as a soloist, Seung-Yeun Huh is a sought-after chamber musician. She founded, the "Huh Trio" (with two of her sisters) with which she regularly performs in Europe and Asia. Renowned composers have written works for the Huh Trio.
In 2016 the Huh Trio gave their 20-year anniversary tour in Korea. In recent years, the piano works of W. A. Mozart have acquired a special significance in Seung-Yeun Huh's program. In addition to Mozart's piano concertos, she has also devoted herself in performances to cycles of the composer's sonatas and piano pieces. Her complete recording of these works on five CDs, released by the label ARS MUSICI, has found wide recognition, and the Swiss radio station DRS has dedicated a multi-part program to it.
After the Mozart period Seung-Yeun Huh gave a special focus on Liszts music. The recording of the three volumes of "Années de Pèlerinage" by Franz Liszt on two CDs in a co-production by Deutschland Funk and ARS MUSICI has been released in 2005.
Also she has devoted herself in performances and recordings of the three late sonatas by Franz Schubert.
In addition to the present Solo CDs, she performs with renowned musicians in several chamber music formations. With Mischa Greull, Frenchhorn, and Andreas Janke, Violin, Seung-Yeun Huh recorded the famous Brahms Horn Trio and other chamber music pieces in a co-production by Swiss Radio and Solo Musica.
In 2016 she founded the AOIDE Trio with Klaidi Sahatçi, Violin and Sasha Neustroev, Cello.
Along with her outstanding activities as a pianist, Seung-Yeun Huh also received Master’s degree in Cultural Management in Switzerland. She currently serves as the prorector of the Conservatory of Music in Zurich.