Unsuk Chin
Composition Jury 2022
Biography
Unsuk Chin was born in 1961 in Seoul, and she has lived in Germany since 1985. Her music has attracted the attention of international conductors such as Simon Rattle, Alan Gilbert, Gustavo Dudamel, Kent Nagano, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Fabio Luisi, David Robertson, Peter Eötvös, Myung-Whun Chung, George Benjamin, Susanna Mälkki, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, François-Xavier Roth, Hannu Lintu, Jakub Hrusa, Kazushi Ono and Ilan Volkov.
Regularly commissioned by leading performing organisations worldwide, Chin's music has been performed by orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, among others. She has been Composer-in-Residence of the Lucerne Festival, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the BBC’s Total Immersion Festival, and many more.
In 2007, Chin’s first opera Alice in Wonderland received its world premiere at the Bavarian State Opera, opening the Munich Opera Festival, and released on DVD and Blu-ray by Unitel Classica. Her work has been celebrated with a series of classical music awards such as the Leonie Sonning Prize, the Sibelius Prize, the Hamburg Bach Prize, the Arnold Schoenberg Prize, the Prince Pierre Foundation Music Awardand the Grawemeyer Award.
Chin has also been active as a concert curator. She was Artistic Director of the Seoul Philharmonic's Ars Nova series from 2006 to 2017, of the London-based Philharmonia Orchestra's Music of Today series from 2011 to 2020, from 2022 onwards as Artistic Director of the International Tongyeong Music Festival, and in 2023 as Director of the Seoul Festival of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Portrait CDs of Unsuk Chin's music have appeared on Deutsche Grammophon, Kairos and Analekta.
Events
76e CONCOURS DE GENÈVE - COMPOSITION FINAL ROUND
WEDNESDAY 26 OCT. 2022, 19:00, Conservatoire (Salle Franz Liszt)
The Competition is open to composers of all nationalities born after June 1st, 1982 (40 years old). The subject of the 2022 edition is a 15–20-minute work for vocal ensemble, composed for six singers: bass, barytone, tenor, mezzosoprano, soprano, high soprano (mezzo-soprano can be replaced by a counter-tenor). The use of electronics was allowed following certain specificities.
This year, 97 composers aged 18-39 years old, from 37 countries applied for the competition. The official jury, chaired by Beat Furrer, met in Geneva to study their scores; they selected three finalists to participate in the Final:
- Ármin Cservenák (26 years old, Hungary) for his work “Madrigali”
- Shin Kim (27 years old, Korea) for his work “The Song of Oneiroi”
- Yuki Nakahashi (26 years old, Japan) for his work “Settings”
The finalists are invited to Geneva from 20-26 October to rehearse and prepare for the Final. Their works will be performed as world premiere by the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart during the public Final Round on 26 October at the Conservatoire in Geneva.
COMPOSITION COMPETITION 2022
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 15 JUNE
CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION
- The 76th Concours de Genève Composition Competition will be held in October 2022. Its objective is to distinguish new works, composed at the earliest after June 2019.
- The Competition is open to composers of all nationalities born after June 1st, 1982 (40 years old). Composers who have already won the Queen Marie Jose International Music Composition Prize or the Concours de Genève Composition Competition are not eligible to take part.
CALENDAR
- 10 June: Deadline for completing the application form
- 20-22 June: Jury meeting, screening of the scores, choosing the finalists
- 23 June: Announce of the finalists selected
- 20-26 October: Stay in Geneva, rehearsals and concert
- 26 October: Final concert with the Neue VocalSolisten Stuttgart
WORK
The subject of the Composition Prize 2022 is a Work for vocal Ensemble, composed after following specifities:
- The work must last between 15 and 20 minutes.
- The work must be written for vocal ensemble of 6 voices.
- The ensemble set must imperatively be the following: 1 bass, 1 barytone, 1 tenor, 1 mezzo, 1 soprano, 1 high soprano (mezzo-soprano can be replaced by a counter-tenor)
- The work may (not mandatory) use electronic device. (see specifications in Annex below)
- The musical score may be hand-written or in digital form, but must be perfectly legible.
PRESENTATION
In order to better know the candidate’s personality and artistic background, we ask them to join to the submitted work the following items:
- A program note presenting their work (to be published if selected for the final concert), in English, French or German.
- A text or a video presenting their work in general and their artistic project for the future. This can be done in any of these following international languages: French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese or Arabic.
- A list of existing works, from which two works are chosen (max. 10 min.) for solo instrument or chamber music, to be performed in a concert organized by the Concours de Genève.