Yonggi Woo

Yonggi Woo, originally from South Korea, began playing the piano at the age of five. At fourteen, he successfully debuted his first piano recital at Kumho Art Hall in Seoul, and was accepted to study at Seoul Arts High School with Professor Soo Jung Shin and Ki-Jung Han. He continued his studies with Professor Aviram Reichert at Seoul National University, earning a Bachelor’s degree with the highest honours in 2019. He currently studies at the studio of Professor Evgeni Bozhanov at Folkwang University of the Arts in Germany.

Yonggi has won numerous international competitions, including first prize at the Suzhou Jinji Lake International Piano Competition, Hong Kong Asia Open Competition, second prize at the Seoul International Music Competition, and was a semifinalist at the Geneva International Competition in Switzerland. He also won first prize at the KBS KEPCO Music Competition in Korea, Köhler-Osbahr-Stiftung Competition, and Folkwang Prize in Germany.

Yonggi has performed at various venues in Europe and Asia, including Philharmonie Mercatorhalle, Seoul Arts Center, Kumho Art Hall, Kukje Art Hall, Elim Art Center, Alpensia Concert Hall, Yeul Maru, KBS Hall, and Hamamatsu Act City Concert Hall. His live performances have been featured on KBS, the national television station of South Korea. He has also appeared as a soloist with the Korean Symphony Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra, and Yeosu Philharmonic Orchestra.

Furthermore, Yonggi has been the pianist for masterclasses by renowned pianists such as Rena Shereshevskaya, Dame Fanny Waterman, Piotr Paleczny, Arie Vardi, Hiroko Nakamura, Tatiana Zelikman, Michel Dalberto, Michel Béroff, Hae-Sun Paik, and Georg Friedrich Schenck, among others.

Picture2: ©️ Anne-laure Lechat, Concours de Geneve