Yunchan Lim

Overview

A phenomenally thrilling talent, pianist Yunchan Lim is the youngest person in history to win the gold medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, at the age of 18, in 2022. Lim has been recognised by the conductor Marin Alsop as ‘a rare artist who brings profound musicality and prodigious technique organically together’ and has himself stated that ‘I have made up my mind that I will live my life only for the sake of music… I wanted my music to become deeper, and if that desire reached the audience, I am satisfied’. His prize-winning performance of Liszt’s Transcendental Études from the Van Cliburn competition was released in July 2023 creating, as reported by Gramophone magazine, ‘a buzz throughout the international piano competition’. For the 2025 Abu Dhabi Festival, Lim plays the gold standard of works, JS Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

Artists

YUNCHAN LIM

In June 2022 Yunchan Lim became the youngest person ever to win gold at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, at the age of 18. He also won the audience award and the award for best performance of a new work.

Born in Siheung, Korea, Lim began piano lessons at the age of seven, and at the age of eight entered the Music Academy of the Seoul Arts Centre. He auditioned for and was accepted into the Korea National Institute for the Gifted in Arts at the age of thirteen, where he met his teacher and mentor, Minsoo Sohn. A year later, in 2018, he won second prize and the Chopin Special Award in his first ever competition, the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists. Also that year, he stood out as the youngest participant in the Cooper International Competition, where he won both third prize and the audience prize, and was provided the opportunity to perform with the Cleveland Orchestra. In 2019, at the age of 15, he was the youngest to win Korea’s Isang Yun International Competition, also taking home two special prizes.

Lim has recently completed two years at the Korea National University of Arts, and is currently studying at the New England Conservatoire with Minsoo Sohn.

At the age of 19 he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, as well as Chicago Symphony, Lucerne Symphony, KBS Symphony and Tokyo Symphony orchestras.

Further debuts followed with the Royal Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Hungarian Radio Symphony, Boston Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, and Sendai Philharmonic orchestras, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Orchestre de Paris.

He also made recital debuts at the Wigmore Hall, Het Concertgebouw, Suntory Hall and Seoul Arts Centre, and recent highlights have included appearances at Carnegie Hall, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, Verbier Festival, Gstaad Festival, Società dei Concerti di Milano and the Kennedy Center.

Yunchan Lim’s prize-winning performance of Liszt’s Transcendental Études from the Van Cliburn competition was released in July 2023. He has also recorded Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto, released in 2022 on the Deutsche Grammophon label, and has featured on KBS’s 2020 Young Musicians of Korea performing a selection of Beethoven and Liszt.