Chee-Yun

Violinist Chee-Yun has made high-profile appearances as a concerto soloist and chamber music player in the U.S. and many other countries. Among top-rank violinists, she is notable for her advocacy of contemporary music of many kinds.

Chee-Yun was born Chee-Yun Kim in Seoul, South Korea, in 1970. Outside of professional contexts, she still uses her birth name. Her two older sisters both played the piano, and she took up the violin at age six. Her mother encouraged her to enter a competition, and to her surprise, she won. Chee-Yun was concertizing in Korea by eight, and she followed one sister to the Juilliard School in New York at 13, studying with Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang, and <a href="spotify:artist:4JhpbtVrxkDg543N3xN1dk">Felix Galimir</a>. At first, speaking little English and facing competition from other young students from around the world, she was intimidated, but she persevered and had a breakthrough in 1989 when she won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. That led to a Carnegie Hall recital debut and a variety of bookings. Chee-Yun has toured the U.S. with the <a href="spotify:artist:1qHStDLIc8uV7hvTG6FGRJ">San Francisco Symphony</a> under conductor <a href="spotify:artist:2v1lHgfpG4joXW7kDdDI78">Michael Tilson-Thomas</a>, and Japan with the <a href="spotify:artist:41dt7Un3zDLbOpYfTasmid">NHK Symphony</a>. She has appeared with the <a href="spotify:artist:1TuMl6QKOFwgQZzzhzuds4">Detroit</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4gTJ4MkZcCantFX5zlRRI8">Toronto</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:7oOCHAPJjD7IARb5hrzvw9">Pittsburgh Symphony</a> Orchestras, among many others. As a chamber player, Chee-Yun has collaborated with pianist <a href="spotify:artist:5jegmFxeN2jAanr0fgXKY6">Barry Douglas</a>, with whom she gave the U.S. premiere of <a href="spotify:artist:0qEO82Hj3SvjoNyEfKpRku">Krzysztof Penderecki</a>'s Violin Sonata No. 2 in 2016. Her other chamber music collaborators include pianist <a href="spotify:artist:5XQSLo7FpTb3FJ69O7y2ur">Alessio Bax</a>, with whom she has toured, and cellist <a href="spotify:artist:342cJoM4xzPrRfLb8fYkuh">Alisa Weilerstein</a>. Chee-Yun has been especially busy as a chamber player at summer festivals, including such high-profile events as the Spoleto USA, Ravinia, and Aspen festivals. From 2007 to 2017, Chee-Yun was the artist-in-residence and professor of violin at Southern Methodist University in Dallas; she has also taught at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Indiana University.

Chee-Yun recorded several albums for the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Denon%22">Denon</a> label in the 2000s decade. She also recorded the two violin concertos of Penderecki for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Naxos%22">Naxos</a> in 2003, joining the Polish National Radio Orchestra (Katowice) and conductor <a href="spotify:artist:2OJaTm0rPZVyMA5k5s8vbh">Antoni Wit</a>. She moved to the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Albany%22">Albany</a> label in 2020 for a recording of the Violin Concerto of Christopher Theofanidis.