"Ji is a pianist with an impressive keyboard command. I’ve nothing but praise for his fearless taming of Corigliano’s ‘Etude Fantasy,’ a musical tsunami that left the audience pinned back against the wall. In the Bach-Busoni Toccata, Adagio and Fugue, BWV 564, he drew organ-like sonorities out of the instrument, playing forcefully without any sense of pounding. Ravel’s ‘La Valse’ was also a tour de force, with admirable clarity in the opening pages and the painting of musical pictures even in the most difficult passages”

— THE WASHINGTON POST

"Ji proceeded to play the most beautiful recital I've heard this year . . . His playing has its own personality and character. It has a point of view that is distinctly his, that is fresh."

— KANSAS CITY STAR

“He radiated the confidence of a gifted, sensitive young pianist who is clearly going places. Ji revealed a command of the Mozart sound and style that seemed astonishingly mature.”

— CHICAGO TRIBUNE

“South Korean piano star Ji thrills with his interpretation of masterpieces.”

— BANGKOK POST

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First Prize, 2012 Young Concert Artists International Auditions

The Korean Concert Society Prize • The John Browning Memorial Award

The Sander Buchman Award • The Slomovic Prize

The Harriman-Jewell Series Prize (MO) • Bronder Prize for Piano, Saint Vincent College (PA)

The Usedom Music Festival Prize (Germany) • The Tannery Pond Concert Prize (NY)

Ji, pianist

Photo: Dario Acosta

[Name is pronounced: Jee] ______________________________________ NOTE: When editing, please do not delete references to Young Concert Artists nor special YCA prizes. Please do not use previously dated biographies. 07/2016

Ji , pianist

Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “a gifted young pianist who is clearly going places,” Ji has been praised from a young age for his compelling musical presence and impressive technical command. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Toronto Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Nashville Symphony, Bangor Symphony, Fairfax Symphony, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Charlotte Philharmonic, Victoria Symphony, New Haven Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, and the Brevard Festival Orchestra. Winner of the 2012 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Ji made recital debuts at Merkin Concert Hall and the Kennedy Center on the Young Concert Artists Series to rave reviews. He has given recitals and educational outreach programs throughout the U.S. at the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, the Harriman-Jewell Series, Philadelphia’s Morning Musicales, the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Mary Baldwin College, the Brownville Concert Series, La Jolla Music Society, San Diego’s Mainly Mozart Festival, the Morgan Library and Museum, St. Vincent College, the Evergreen Museum and Library, the Port Washington Library, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. He has also performed in four-hand recitals with Marika Bournaki at the Seoul Art Center and with Charles Wadsworth in a chamber music program of Charles Wadsworth and Friends. Highlights of the 2016-2017 season include recitals at the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, the National Gallery of Art, the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, Iowa State University, the Haywood County Arts Council, Mexico’s Centro Nacional de las Artes, the Honest Brook Music Festival, Saint Martin’s Abbey Church, and a concerto performance with the Westchester Philharmonic. Well-known in Korea, Ji performed the country’s first outdoor classical concert as soloist with the BBC Symphony under Jirí Belohlávek; and performed in Seoul with world-renowned ballerina, Sue Jin Kang and dancers from the Stuttgart Ballet. Ji’s creative vision to make classical music accessible to young people led to his “Stop & Listen” outdoor “guerrilla” performances in 2010, during which he worked with renowned Korean pop-artist Tae Jung Kim to design the “Ji-T” piano, bringing classical music to the public on the busy streets of Seoul. He also collaborated with the Japanese electronic/house music singer FreeTEMPO. From 2008 to 2013, Ji performed as a member of the Ensemble DITTO in Korea and Japan with violinist Stefan Jackiw, violist Richard O’Neill, and cellist Michael Nicolas. In early 2016, Ji was the star of a national Android commercial in which he performs Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on two pianos, one that features the usual 88 pitches on a piano, and one that is tuned so that each key plays a middle C. He has recorded two CDs: Bach Exhibition on the Credia label, and Lisztomania with Credia/Universal Music. Ji began playing the piano at the age of five. At the age of ten, he was the youngest pianist to win the New York Philharmonic’s Young Artists Competition, resulting in a performance at Avery Fisher Hall under Maestro Kurt Masur. He graduated from the Juilliard School where he studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky.

JI, piano

REPERTOIRE WITH ORCHESTRA

BACH Concerto No. 1 in D minor BWV 1052 BEETHOVEN Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37

Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58 CHOPIN Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21 GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue GRIEG Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 MOZART Concerto No. 9 “Jeunehomme” (K.271) Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466 Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488

PROKOFIEV Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16

RACHMANINOV Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18

Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 RAVEL Concerto in G Major Left Hand Concerto SAINT-SAËNS Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 SCHUMANN Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 SHOSTAKOVICH Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 35

Ji, pianist

Young Concert Artists Gala Features Three Rising Soloists James R. Oestreich | The New York Times | May 8, 2015

Young Concert Artists makes no claim to quality in its name. But over 54 years, through its choices of artists it has helped to develop careers, in many cases, major ones.

The evidence was all around at the organization’s annual gala concert on Tuesday evening at Alice Tully Hall. Three brilliant young soloists performed concertos with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, led by the veteran conductor Gerard Schwarz, who was himself discovered by Young Concert Artists as a trumpeter in 1971.

There were no repertory adventures here, and that undoubtedly suited the gala audi-ence members just fine. On their way to a fancy dinner being set up in the lobby, they were clearly not looking to be challenged, but they were just as clearly involved in the performances and loudly appreciative.

As well they might have been. A 24-year-old pianist named simply Ji led off with Mozart’s Concerto No. 23, giving a fluid reading with crystalline articulation, his fingers dancing over the keys.

Mr. Schwarz, as if anticipating the full-blown Romanticism of the works to follow, led an often robust performance, and Ji followed in kind, punching out accents as needed. He got to set the pace in the finale, and it was blistering, making demands on the orchestral players almost equal to those on himself.

The violinist Benjamin Beilman, 25, is already widely appreciated in New York, thanks to appearances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and others. Here he played Sibelius’s concerto, which has had several workouts in New York this season, most notably by Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in February.

But this performance, strong and uncannily accurate, could stand proudly alongside any of them. Mr. Beilman speaks double and triple stops as if they were his first language.

But the real revelation came in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, played by George Li, 19. Compared with the other two soloists, each with understated physical flair, Mr. Li cuts a less compelling figure. But he is a powerhouse. I have seldom heard the many blazing octave passages in the outer movements played faster or more cleanly, let alone both at the same time.

Mr. Li needs to develop flair of his own (start by making the impossible bravura demands look at least a little difficult) and to add poetry in lyrical moments. There is no reason to doubt that he can do so, and quickly.

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The pianist Ji with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducted by Gerard Schwarz at Alice Tully Hall. Photo: Matt Dine

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Ji, pianist

Pianist Ji Showcases Technique at IPS -William Furtwangler | Charleston Today | November 6, 2014

THE SECOND CONCERT of the CofC International Piano

Series was supposed to feature Beth Levin, but she had to

cancel at the last minute. Ran Dank, artistic director of the

IPS, made use of his connections in the music world and

secured a fitting replacement for Tuesday night’s concert

in the person of young Korean pianist Ji (pronounced

Gee), a musical dynamo if there ever were one.

Ji’s program was remarkable in its breadth and depth. He

opened with a transcription of Johann Sebastian Bach’s

Toccata, Adagio and Fugue, BWV 564 by the late

Romantic composer/piano virtuoso Ferruccio Busoni

(1866–1924).

Originally for organ, it emerges in Busoni’s piano version as complex and extraordinary as Bach’s initial

composition. Ji’s mastery of the piano was as dramatic and thunderous as an organ. Ji set the stage with

his second-to-none technique and mature insight for the remaining items on the program.

One of Franz Schubert’s exquisitely melodic Impromptus (Op. 142, No. 3) followed the Bach-Busoni,

providing a breather. Again, Ji demonstrated his musical understanding with this early Romantic work.

Closing out the first part of the evening, Ji tackled Sergei Prokofiev’s 1942 Sonata No. 7 in B-flat Major,

Op. 83 (the middle one of three “War Sonatas”). This nerve-racking and oppressive piece reflects the

pain and suffering brought on by the violence of war. Ji, with his pile-driver technique, communicated

the anguish and stress that Prokofiev wrote into this score. The audience in the Sottile Theatre seemed

to be of two minds: some gave a standing ovation and others just sat in their seats either out of dislike or

shock.

Five of Felix Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words provided another welcome respite from the high

drama of the Prokofiev. Ji’s careful and tender readings of these short pieces were captivating.

Le Valse by Maurice Ravel concluded the concert. Originally written in 1920 for orchestra as a ballet, it

was rejected by the impresario Diaghilev who said it was not a ballet, but a portrait of a ballet. Ravel was

miffed and the two never collaborated again. Ravel made a two-piano reduction and transcribed the

music for one piano, but this later version is very difficult to play. It seems to be this version that Ji

played. Ji was at home with Ravel’s expressive harmonies and unique textures, as the whirlwind picture

of the waltz spread. The audience gave Ji and this brilliant performance yet another standing ovation

leading to a short encore—a song by Robert Schumann in a paraphrase by Franz Liszt.

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Ji (Photo: Christian Steiner)

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Ji, pianist

Korean Pianist Ji: Blowing minds in showy DC debut Terry Ponick | The Washington Times | December 12, 2013

After attending the extraordinary Washington debut last week of

the youthful and exuberant Korean pianist, Ji—the 22 year-old artist former-

ly known as Ji-Yong—we decided to wait a bit to collect our thoughts. His

mind-blowing, back-to-the-future December 3 recital generally wowed the

audience at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater where he performed under

the auspices of the Young Concert Artists (YCA) series.

Like an increasing number of up and coming classical artists today, Ji takes a

page out of the rock musician’s PR handbook. In a musical world where a

mere brilliant artistic performance no longer guarantees a full house, more

than a few classical soloists of the current generation are now creating out-

fits, attitudes and personae in the hopes of attracting the younger demo-

graphic to their concerts. And likely, also because it’s fun.

Ji appears to have embraced this notion. Abandoning traditional

concert garb for an all-black outfit, Ji strode confidently onto the stage smil-

ing broadly like the happy musical warrior he turned out to be. That’s be-

cause, outfit aside, the most impressive part of the show was the pianist’s lusty,

cheerful but relentless attack on the Terrace Theater’s Steinway concert grand.

This young pianist clearly had a two-point plan in mind as he sat down to play. First and foremost, he in-

tended to impress the audience with his mastery of technical and interpretative skills. But he also intended to ac-

complish this with visual excitement, flair, and showmanship, elements often neglected by our coolly professional

Boomer generation artists but which proved key to the success of late-Romantic piano soloists such as Rachmani-

noff and Horowitz.

Ji launched his recital with the Bach Toccata, Adagio and Fugue, BWV 564, as arranged for the piano by

the turn-of-the-20th century Italian composer, pianist and teacher Ferruccio Busoni. In this Bach transcription, Bu-

soni centered on Bach’s sense of order and style while adding Lisztian brilliance to the mix. The result is a booming,

difficult, heavily bass-lined piano solo that, on a Steinway, at least, sounds almost as if it were being performed on a

mighty organ. That is, this work comes across that way if the pianist performing it conceives of it that way, which Ji

does and did during his recital. His powerful and intense interpretation of this arrangement seemed also to be his

declaration of artistic intent.

Ji approached the Bach-Busoni with the kind of room-filling majesty that the Baroque master would never

have imagined while sitting at the keyboard of a modest harpsichord, yet a sound that easily can suit 21st century

musical tastes. Yet whatever one’s point of view, his performance was viscerally exciting, a fusillade of shock and

awe blasting forth with such intensity that it might have registered a modest blip on the Richter scale.

The calmer Schubert Impromptu in B-flat major, Op. 142, No. 3 that followed the Bach-Busoni, was likely

programmed to provide some breathing room in the program, enabling the audience to catch its breath before the

pianist commenced his next round of pianistic fireworks.

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Ji (Photo: Christian Steiner)

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Ji, pianist American composer John Corigliano’s “Etude Fantasy” followed the Schubert and concluded this recital’s

first half. A spiky, modernist, more or less atonal work, the “Etude Fantasy,” consists of five distinct parts or move-

ments, each highlighting a specific technical difficulty. Taken together, they constitute a ferocious challenge for any

pianist, let alone the new kid on the block. After contemplating the situation silently for a moment, he enthusiasti-

cally launched his answer to Corigliano’s challenge.

Underscoring his understanding of the situation, Ji tackled Corigliano’s etudes with all the ferocity they

demand, beginning from the very first note. Etude number one is for the left hand alone. Corigliano’s take on this

exercise requires the production of considerable volume from the weaker hand while demanding the smooth pro-

duction of the kind of rapid and nearly impossible legato stretches that Chopin explored in his very first Etude in C.

Ji performed this etude as marked, but also added flashes of excitement and drama while sustaining the necessary

volume. The somewhat quieter “Legato” etude that followed, echoed and pursued the same issue, but with both

hands, preparing the performer to approach the third.

Entitled “Fifths to Thirds,” this third etude is literally that, alternating as it does intervals of the fifth—the

back and front ends of a standard triad usually played with the thumb and pinky—with intervals of thirds, typically

involving the thumb and middle finger or the middle finger and the pinky, though the pianist’s mileage may vary.

Corigliano’s challenge here is to run through these alternating figures at breakneck speed while traveling up and

down the keyboard with a further mixture of complex patterns that at times would seem to call for 12 fingers rather

than the conventional 10. Ji flew traversed this wicked movement with remarkable dexterity—a good thing, too,

since the next etude, subtitled “Ornaments” proved even rougher.

Corigliano’s “ornaments” in Etude 4 have nothing to do with Christmas decorations. Turns, trills, rippling

arpeggios, glissandi—all add surface interest and complexity to a piece and often contribute some artistic thrills as

well to a live performance if executed well. But in this etude, Corigliano simply piles them on, and on, and on into a

shockingly reckless little piece that should require the kind of cautionary label we often see on TV reality shows:

“Warning. Do not try this at home.” Obviously, Ji did try this at home, resulting in a jaw-dropping display of sheer

technical skill.

Corigliano’s final etude, “Melody,” was scarcely that. But it was a surprisingly low-key way to wind down

the set, evoking, as it did, ghostly recollections of the preceding etude. Ji paid this little finale the appropriate

amount of reverence, bringing this set to a haunting, effective close.

Ji opened the second half of his recital with J. S. Bach’s Partita No 1 in B-flat major, BWV 825, a series of

six brief dance-style movements introduced by a Prelude.

The Partita brought Ji’s program to his grand finale, Ravel’s piano score for “La Valse,” a short ballet that’s

better known to most in its lush, sweeping orchestral version. “La Valse” is not so much a waltz as it is the gestation

and eventual birth of a grand waltz. It’s order emerging from a swirling, rumbling chaos, a strange, post-

impressionist vision of a fast-receding European past capable of absorbing any number of interpretations. In his

performance, the pianist embraced the composer’s musical chaos-theory, rippling through the primeval murk of the

opening bass figures while allowing little bits and pieces of a fragmented waltz to emerge and then vaporize like tiny

meteorites before coalescing one again in an exhilarating finale. The grandeur of Ji’s “all-in” performance of the

Ravel marked a thrilling climax to an evening that was as much a show as it was a debut recital.

The audience was wildly appreciative of the young pianist’s effort, calling Ji back for an encore, which he

announced as a Brahms Intermezzo that was performed with a tasteful blend of elegance and grace.

Ji clearly has the intention, ability, and showmanship to become a big name in this century’s classical fir-

mament.

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Ji, pianist

At Kennedy Center, pianist Ji shows that he has some growing up to do Robert Battey | The Washington Post | December 4, 2013

Well, let’s see: We had Elvis, Cher, Madonna, Prince, and now we have . . . Ji. Pop-star narcissism in the classical world is usually ill-advised, and in any case is best attempted when the musi-cian has established, world-class talent. Ji, a 22-year-old Juilliard student, made his Washington debut Tuesday at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, presented by the Young Concert Artists. He is a pianist with an impressive keyboard command, but he is still searching for an authentic musical voice. And until he finds one, the presentation comes off as a bit much. From his two-letter name to his appearance (black open-collar shirt, sleeves rolled up to display either his well-defined forearm musculature or his tattoos or both), to the generic quality of his playing in the classical repertoire, Ji has some growing up to do. I’ve nothing but praise for Ji’s fearless taming of Corigliano’s “Etude Fantasy,” a musical tsunami that left the audience pinned back against the wall. Despite all its musical anach-ronisms, the same goes for the Bach-Busoni Toccata, Adagio and Fugue, BWV 564, where he drew organ-like sonorities out of the instrument, playing forcefully without any sense of pounding. Ravel’s “La Valse” was also a tour de force, with admirable clarity in the opening pages and the painting of musical pictures even in the most difficult passages. But Schubert’s “Impromptu in B-flat” lacked architecture: The variations sounded like separate pieces. And in the Bach Partita No. 1, Ji seemed to feel that steady time and a pro-jection of long lines sufficed. But the music didn’t have any metrical feel, the notes kind of wafting along in space. And why so few repeats? And why was the Gigue so brutal? I’d like to think my impressions would be the same had he dressed appropriately and had the program mentioned his last name. But packaging decisions are ultimately up to the artist, and only time will tell if the public will warm to Ji’s.

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Ji (Photo: Christian Steiner)

Ji, pianist

Classical pianist Ji: Making musical connections Michael James Rocha | San Diego Union-Tribune | January 18, 2016

Good performers entertain the audience, while great performers make them feel. Classical pianist Ji considers it a job well done when he falls in the latter. “It’s a performer’s job to break that wall between the audience and the performer,” he said. “I don’t go out of my way to do it, but I wear everything on my sleeve. Making myself vulnerable on stage, as a result, makes people feel something. “If someone comes up to me after a performance and says, ‘I can’t pinpoint what it was, but I felt something,’ then that’s when I know I did my part.” At 24 — he turns 25 on Jan. 26— Ji is doing everything he can to preserve classical music and introduce it to young audiences. But don’t get him wrong: He doesn’t think classical music is a dying breed at all. “First and foremost, people keep saying that the industry is dwindling and facing rough times,” Ji said by phone recently while walking around his hometown of New York City. “History tells us that that mentality has been prevalent since Bach’s time. “I think that it’s an ongoing vicious cycle where people think classical music’s popularity is on the decline,” said Ji, who performs here Sunday, making his La Jolla Music Society debut as part of its Discovery Series. “I take — I accept — the responsibility to fight and prove people otherwise. Classical music is never going away. We live in very modern world, and it’s our job to live in the moment, but it’s also our job to respect and preserve the tradition.” Classical music, Ji said, “transcends everything, and it gives me an outlet … a way to talk about things that words cannot describe. It excites me to share my approach to music and hope people can relate on some level.”

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Classical pianist Ji performs Sunday as part of the La Jolla Music Society's Discovery Series. Christian Steiner

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Ji, pianist

Classical pianist Ji: Making musical connections Michael James Rocha | San Diego Union-Tribune | January 18, 2016

An award-winning international musician, Ji has been sharing his approach to music since he was 5, when he first started playing the piano. Raised in a musically inclined family — his mother ran a music school in Korea — Ji said playing the piano “was something that spoke to me. It drew me in at such a young age.” At 9, he relocated with his family to New York, where he attended the Music Preparatory Division of the Mannes College and later, the Pre-College Division at The Juilliard School. These days, he’s devoted to spreading his gospel. He’s a superstar back in his native South Korea and was featured last summer in the August issue of Esquire Korea. He is an ardent spokesperson for classical music and knows how to use the power of the medium. “I’m a firm believer in showing people that yes, I play music that’s been around for hundreds of years, but I’m not stuck in the past. I’m very much aware of my surroundings and find a way to bridge the two. It’s all about finding a balance.” Outside of music, there’s also that constant search for the “yin and yang,” he said. “Balance has always been elusive since I was young. When you’re always on the go — in my case, performing — you try very hard to find balance. As an homage to my incessant need for balance, I was bored one day in history class and drew a face and an eye in the shape of the yin and yang symbol.” That ended up becoming the design for two tattoos: on the inside of his right arm, the yang side, and on the inside of left arm, the yin. Rebellious streak aside, Ji is all about his music — something that’s been a part of him his entire life. He’s been recognized around the world, performing as a soloist with the Toronto Symphony, Bangor Symphony, Nashville Symphony and Charlotte Philharmonic, among many others. In 2012, he was the first prize winner in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. In 2010, he collaborated with Korean pop artist Tae Jung Kim to bring classical music to the streets of Seoul. He also has two CDs under his belt: “Bach Exhibition” and “Lisztomania.” For someone with such talent and drive, does he still get nervous? “Oh, I still get nervous,” he said, laughing. “I always think, though, that there’s a fine line between feeling secure and assured and the nerves that come in right before you go on stage — that’s what generates the magic in terms of spontaneity and being lost in the music. Without that kind of nerves, there’s no magic, so I welcome it. “Before I go out on stage, I do a lot of breathing exercises to get in tune with my body. It’s a very physical thing, playing the piano. I try to put my mind in an athletic perspective. Once I go out, I take a breath and ground myself to the chair and make sure everything is aligned properly and we take off. The moment I do that is when the magic happens … when you break that wall.”

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